Steve Duin: Intimidation tactics may silence Salem on new Oregon gun laws
By Steve Duin, The Oregonian
on March 09, 2013 at 10:00 AM, updated March 09, 2013 at 10:05 AM
On volatile local issues, Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland is a reliable barometer of the looming storm.
When Greenlick suggested classifying cigarettes as a controlled substance, requiring a doctor's prescription, the telephonic and electronic thunderclaps were immediate:
"'You suck, you liberal moron!' That sort of stuff," Greenlick says. "But it didn't seem at all threatening."
Greenlick's 2011 proposal to ban children younger than 6 from riding in bike trailers?
"The bike community was hysterical. I got abusive emails, not necessarily threatening ones, from as far away as The Netherlands."
But even Greenlick has been surprised by the abusive, obscene and anti-Semitic tenor of the reaction to his support for gun-control legislation after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.
"I think this is politics by intimidation," said Greenlick, who has received "a couple thousand" emails and phone calls, less than 75 of which were supportive.
And he believes the tactics have effectively cowed his colleagues.
"There is no question in my mind that this is intimidating to legislators," Greenlick said. "And consequently, I don't think anything involving guns is going through the Legislature. People are thoroughly warned off.
"I don't think they're afraid they'll get shot. They're afraid they're going to get flooded. They're afraid of having people campaign against them. And they don't want to deal with the bother. This is a hell of a bother."
Greenlick sent along several emails, the worst of which he shared with Oregon State Police.
One refers to Greenlick as a "disgusting jew parasite." Another features, in two compact paragraphs, three anti-Semitic slurs and five of the seven words George Carlin once claimed you could never say on television.
A third warns Greenlick, "You have made a grave error" in sponsoring House Bill 3200, and suggests he withdraw his support: "Good choices are the foundation for long and healthy life."
"This does draw attention," said Lt. Gregg Hastings at OSP. "There's an assessment on whether anyone has committed a crime. (But) we generally don't talk about security issues."
Greenlick admits he was also unnerved by an email from Gary Weis of Monmouth, who asked whether the 77-year-old Democrat still lived at a Northwest Portland address, noting, "I was thinking of picketing at your house and was wondering if you would give me directions."
Democrat Ginny Burdick -- the most impassioned gun-control advocate in the Oregon Senate -- recently dealt with one of those home visits. Some klutz spent several hours filming Burdick outside her home, and Jeff Reynolds, chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party, gleefully posted the video online.
But Greenlick called Weis, inviting him to the Capitol for 30 minutes of conversation.
"We talked about a variety of things," Weis told me. "I feel strongly that we (gun owners) are being attacked for things we haven't done. Just because I own a firearm or a concealed gun license, I'm the devil?"
As Greenlick told Weis, he has soured on HB 3200, which places limits on "assault weapons" and large capacity magazines, and no longer supports it as too broad and overreaching.
Burdick, meanwhile, has announced that four gun-control bills -- including background checks on all gun transactions except those between immediate family members -- will be heard Thursday in Senate Judiciary.
"It's clear that intimidation works," Burdick said. "This is the extremist, highly motivated fringe. The strategy is to make life so miserable for people that they don't want to discuss the issue.
"I'm hoping that after Sandy Hook and Clackamas, legislators will overcome it. When someone can mow down a classroom of kids and nothing is done, we all have culpability at that point."
Yet Greenlick has concluded that most legislators would rather live with that infamy than confront the vitriolic fringe.
A majority of Oregonians, he argues, "would vote in favor of slowing the spread of assault weapons. I believe they would vote for background checks. They already did.
"I think the citizens of Oregon would be in favor of reasonable constraint. But they're not as vocal. You don't hear from them."
And that, dear readers, speaks volumes to legislators who are afraid to go it alone.
-- Steve Duin
By Steve Duin, The Oregonian
on March 09, 2013 at 10:00 AM, updated March 09, 2013 at 10:05 AM
On volatile local issues, Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland is a reliable barometer of the looming storm.
When Greenlick suggested classifying cigarettes as a controlled substance, requiring a doctor's prescription, the telephonic and electronic thunderclaps were immediate:
"'You suck, you liberal moron!' That sort of stuff," Greenlick says. "But it didn't seem at all threatening."
Greenlick's 2011 proposal to ban children younger than 6 from riding in bike trailers?
"The bike community was hysterical. I got abusive emails, not necessarily threatening ones, from as far away as The Netherlands."
But even Greenlick has been surprised by the abusive, obscene and anti-Semitic tenor of the reaction to his support for gun-control legislation after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.
"I think this is politics by intimidation," said Greenlick, who has received "a couple thousand" emails and phone calls, less than 75 of which were supportive.
And he believes the tactics have effectively cowed his colleagues.
"There is no question in my mind that this is intimidating to legislators," Greenlick said. "And consequently, I don't think anything involving guns is going through the Legislature. People are thoroughly warned off.
"I don't think they're afraid they'll get shot. They're afraid they're going to get flooded. They're afraid of having people campaign against them. And they don't want to deal with the bother. This is a hell of a bother."
Greenlick sent along several emails, the worst of which he shared with Oregon State Police.
One refers to Greenlick as a "disgusting jew parasite." Another features, in two compact paragraphs, three anti-Semitic slurs and five of the seven words George Carlin once claimed you could never say on television.
A third warns Greenlick, "You have made a grave error" in sponsoring House Bill 3200, and suggests he withdraw his support: "Good choices are the foundation for long and healthy life."
"This does draw attention," said Lt. Gregg Hastings at OSP. "There's an assessment on whether anyone has committed a crime. (But) we generally don't talk about security issues."
Greenlick admits he was also unnerved by an email from Gary Weis of Monmouth, who asked whether the 77-year-old Democrat still lived at a Northwest Portland address, noting, "I was thinking of picketing at your house and was wondering if you would give me directions."
Democrat Ginny Burdick -- the most impassioned gun-control advocate in the Oregon Senate -- recently dealt with one of those home visits. Some klutz spent several hours filming Burdick outside her home, and Jeff Reynolds, chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party, gleefully posted the video online.
But Greenlick called Weis, inviting him to the Capitol for 30 minutes of conversation.
"We talked about a variety of things," Weis told me. "I feel strongly that we (gun owners) are being attacked for things we haven't done. Just because I own a firearm or a concealed gun license, I'm the devil?"
As Greenlick told Weis, he has soured on HB 3200, which places limits on "assault weapons" and large capacity magazines, and no longer supports it as too broad and overreaching.
Burdick, meanwhile, has announced that four gun-control bills -- including background checks on all gun transactions except those between immediate family members -- will be heard Thursday in Senate Judiciary.
"It's clear that intimidation works," Burdick said. "This is the extremist, highly motivated fringe. The strategy is to make life so miserable for people that they don't want to discuss the issue.
"I'm hoping that after Sandy Hook and Clackamas, legislators will overcome it. When someone can mow down a classroom of kids and nothing is done, we all have culpability at that point."
Yet Greenlick has concluded that most legislators would rather live with that infamy than confront the vitriolic fringe.
A majority of Oregonians, he argues, "would vote in favor of slowing the spread of assault weapons. I believe they would vote for background checks. They already did.
"I think the citizens of Oregon would be in favor of reasonable constraint. But they're not as vocal. You don't hear from them."
And that, dear readers, speaks volumes to legislators who are afraid to go it alone.
-- Steve Duin
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