By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In the aftermath of the tragic school shooting at the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, the founder and head of the Oregon Gun Owners Action League (ORGOAL) is working on proposals which he says will “turn the page” on school safety.
Derek LeBlanc, winner of the “Activist of the Year” award from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, posted a lengthy message on the ORGOAL website.
“No longer will we tolerate the elites protecting themselves with guns only to leave our children defenseless or without the same level of protection,” he declared. “I wrote a piece of legislation on Friday, the day after the shooting, that would repeal all of the insane ordinances that have led to the slaughter of one of our most valuable resources, our children. The bill I wrote would modify all of the Oregon Revised Statutes that created potential criminal penalties for the hero in Bend. It would also give civil protections for the defenders. Gone are the days when we will allow the hypocrisy of gun control to continue to put lives at risk. We are the captains now, if you understand the meme.”
On Nov. 3, Oregon will choose either a new governor, or re-elect its current governor, Tina Kotek, who has shown no appreciation toward gun owners or the Second Amendment.
LeBlanc’s lengthy actually challenges his readers to give this some thought.
“So how do we fix this problem, you ask,” he posits. “For one, we end the war on guns. Yes, we can admit some guns are used inappropriately, but in the majority of cases, guns are used for defensive purposes. In fact, the CDC just reported that guns are used defensively up to 3 million times annually, quite often without a shot being fired.”
He goes on to suggest that guns “have a PR problem.”
“The media and the prohibitionists push this narrative that guns just ‘shoot’ themselves,” LeBlanc says.
That much could be easily demonstrated by the constant use of the term “gun violence,” as if the firearm fires itself. No other weapon used in a crime ever gets the same branding, i.e. “knife violence,” or “claw hammer violence.” In those cases, the blame is always attached to the perpetrator.
LeBlanc told TGM he is working on the fine points of his legislative proposal.
“The language is being tweaked by the Legislative Council,” he said via email. “So it’s not fully ‘cooked’ yet.”
There is plenty of time, since the Oregon Legislature doesn’t convene until a bit later than most state legislatures.
