PORTLAND -- Portland Mayor Sam Adams pledged his support to the effort to require more stringent background checks on hand gun sales during a rally in Portland Monday.
"Fixing background checks is a key improvement to the federal laws that we can enact and have the president sign immediately," said Adams. "It will help all Portlanders be safe...it will help our great police officers be safe."
Omar Samaha was among those in Portland Monday to gain support for changes in laws related to background checks for gun sales. Samaha's sister was one of many victims in the Virginia Tech shooting. Samaha said his sister's killer was able to purchase guns despite being deemed mentally unstable, and his name never appeared on a list of forbidden purchasers of guns.
"After my sister was killed, I went undercover with (ABC-TV's) '20/20' and purchased 10 guns in one hour without any check . . . easy as buying a bag of chips from a convenience store," Samaha said.
Samaha is part of the group Fix Gun Checks. The group has proposed changes in Federal gun laws to get all the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the national background check system. The group also wants to require background checks for every gun sale in America. In Oregon a background check is not required for some gun sales, like at gun shows or a person-to-person sale.
Conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson was among those who oppose the new legislation. "What they want is a restriction on the ability of private sellers, who are a small number of people, at gunshows, to sell guns to somebody without any kind of background check," said Larson. "To my knowledge, they've never shown that thats going to restrict the ability of criminals to get their guns."
Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said Samaha's visit was especially important to call attention to responsible gun ownership, after five gang-related shootings in the last eight days.
Over the weekend, four people were hit by gunfire when a fight broke out at a party near NE 9th and Dekum. None of those shot had life-threatening injuries.
