Issue Position: Public Safety

In the time since Kate was sworn in as governor, more than 600 Oregonians have died from violence inflicted with a gun - more than 100 of those due to homicidal violence. After meeting with families of victims in the Umpqua Community College shooting, she vowed to do whatever she could to prevent a such an event from happening again.

Kate is proactively working to make Oregon a safer place to live by introducing new common sense gun safety legislation, focusing on campus safety and diversifying leadership to ensure Oregonians are treated fairly and have equal access to justice.

"Violence answers nothing, offers nothing, solves nothing. If we want to end violence, we must instill hope and create opportunity. I call on each of us, as Oregonians and as Americans, to join this call to end gun violence now." -- Governor Kate Brown
COMMON SENSE GUN SAFETY

While Congress has continually failed to take action on common sense gun safety, Oregon is moving forward. Following the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, Kate's leadership made Oregon the first state to take action to prevent senseless gun violence since the tragedy. She continued her previous work to close loopholes in Oregon law by preventing all convicted stalkers and domestic violence offenders from buying and keeping guns.

Under Kate's leadership, Oregon became one of only eight states and D.C. to require background checks on private gun sales. In July 2016, Kate took executive action to strengthen law enforcement efforts to track dangerous weapons, and called on the federal government to ban assault weapons and pass anti-terrorist legislation.

Kate refuses to sit idly by while innocent Americans lose their lives to senseless acts of violence. In 2017, she signed into law the Extreme Risk Protection Order. Too often families and friends see certain warning signs in their loved ones before they commit an act of gun violence. This bill gives Oregonians a tool to keep our communities safer, by keeping guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

In the future, Kate will continue to make progress on common sense gun safety by supporting legislation that will ensure dangerous people cannot obtain a gun simply because authorities were unable to complete the background check within the current timelines, as happened in the tragic case of the mass shooting in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

SMART ON CRIME AND JUSTICE REINVESTMENT

As governor, Kate enacted legislation that created a task force to assess racial profiling in Oregon's justice system and then implement reforms and data tracking to improve practices. that unfairly target communities of color. She also has worked with public safety officials to provide justice reinvestment programs for Oregonians with non-violent crimes. These programs will keep Oregon from needing to open a new women's prison, save thousands of taxpayer dollars, offer drug treatment, and keep more families together.

Kate will continue to fight for more diversity in Oregon's government and justice system, as well as stand up for equal treatment of all Oregonians.

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