A safer future is possible here in Oregon, and together, we are making progress.
Community violence prevention, led mainly by local Black, Latino and Tribal organizations such as such as Healing Hurt People, Love is Stronger, Latino Network, and many more organizations helped prevent shootings, stopped retaliation, and helped families begin the process of healing.
Leaders from our GVP Equity Table, and Oregonians from all backgrounds, helped successfully advocate for $10 million of Community Violence Prevention funding last year from the state legislature. This funding went to organizations across the state working to prevent gun violence before it occurs.
These organizations face significant gaps in funding, and need ongoing, sustainable funding to continue their work. We need the state legislature to double down on violence prevention funding, while also addressing root causes of gun violence.
Community members - you all! - showed up and spoke out, alongside other leading advocacy organizations. Over 850 of our supporters contacted lawmakers to tell them to ban ghost guns. As a result, the legislature banned these guns, which makes it easier for law enforcement to go after those who are putting untraceable guns into our communities.
The majority of guns used in crimes still are first purchased legally at a gun store, and many more are stolen, including from gun dealers. We need gun dealers to be leaders in preventing guns from being moved to the illegal gun market.
Locally led efforts led by groups like Gun Owners For Responsible Ownership are helping increase the number of firearms stored securely. Research shows that if 20% more firearm owners stored their guns securely, it would reduce firearm suicide rates as much as 30%. And preventing access to unsecured firearms will also prevent school shootings.
Gun safes are expensive, and not always accessible. We need to ensure all firearm owners have access to safes. As rates of gun ownership increase for Black, Latino and Asian community members, we need education and information to help keep families safe.
Extreme risk protection orders have prevented mass shootings – probably more than we even know – and have kept people safe in moments of crisis through temporary removal of firearms: 127 Extreme Risk Protection Orders were approved last year.
Most of the public isn’t familiar with Extreme Risk Protection Orders and they continue to be underused. We’re working to increase awareness of this life-saving tool, and make them more effective through policy updates.
Research shows about 30-40% of guns in Oregon were stored securely last year - locked up and inaccessible to kids or theft - preventing injuries, firearm suicides, school shootings, and crime.
We need gun owners who take the responsibility of gun ownership seriously to lead the way in increasing secure storage practices for all firearm owners.
1,753 failed background checks led to denied firearm transactions for people who should not have access to a gun, preventing guns from ending up in our streets or in the hands of folks who shouldn’t access them.
As many as 10,000 times last year, people in Oregon had the chance to exploit a loophole in our background check law, and purchase a firearm before their background check was completed. Measure 114 would close this loophole. This is why it’s critical Measure 114 goes into place as soon as possible.
Alongside the state Department of Justice, and with our partners Lift Every Voice Oregon and Brady, we have fought to defend Measure 114 in court and ensure this live saving policy goes into effect as soon as possible.
We fought and won a victory for Measure 114 in federal court, where a district court judge found Measure 114’s provisions constitutional under the 2nd Amendment. As a closely-watched federal trial on high-capacity magazines, the ruling has national implications for the gun violence prevention movement.
Research shows that if Oregon had adopted a handgun purchaser licensing law when Connecticut did in 1995, we would expect 193 fewer firearm homicides and 849 fewer firearm suicides over a decade.* The large number of preventable firearm suicides is particularly notable, given Oregon's relatively high firearm suicide rate. This means there would have been an estimated 1,041 fewer deaths due to gunfire in Oregon from 1996-2005 if a handgun purchaser licensing law existed.
We worked to ensure survivors' voices were heard, including during the Measure 114 trial after lawyers from the gun lobby said the testimony of survivors was “irrelevant”.
We are listening to survivors who share how the affects of gun violence ripple across families and communities, and who have identified a need for more services for survivors.
Oregon has one of the highest rates of Veteran suicide in the country. To better understand why, and what can be done, we commissioned a landscape analysis to hear from Veterans, their families, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and state leaders on what is working - and what is not - for Oregon Veterans and Service Members.
In 2023, the Alliance hired our first ever Executive Director, and began to build the fully staffed organization needed to sustain this work for the long-term.
One of our organizational priorities has been to ensure those most impacted by gun tragedy are helping build our vision, programmatic and policy priorities:
We are working to connect people from across the state - survivors of gun related tragedies, firearm owners, rural and urban residents, Veterans, healthcare practitioners, faith leaders, and local community leaders - in a collective effort to create safer communities for everyone.
