A lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer is one of Oregon's innovative leaders. Raised in SE Portland, Earl attended Centennial High School. While still a college student at Lewis and Clark College, he led the campaign in Oregon to lower the voting age. He was a key player just two years later as one of the youngest legislators in Oregon's history in a landmark session for school funding, ethics reform and Oregon's groundbreaking land use laws.
As a Multnomah County Commissioner and member of the Portland City Council, Earl's innovative accomplishments in transportation with light rail, bicycles and the street car, planning and environmental programs and public participation helped Portland earn an international reputation as one of America's most livable cities.
The stark fact is that Americans suffer more gun violence than people in any other developed country and our children are particularly at risk. Gun violence in the United States is not inevitable, nor should we accept it as the status quo. We need to address this issue for what it is: a public health crisis that threatens the well-being and peace of mind of urban and rural communities across the country.
Earl's report, Enough Is Enough: A Comprehensive Plan to Improve Gun Safety lays out common sense steps that we can and should take to end gun violence. While there is no single solution, we can learn from other challenges that the United States has faced and overcome. Using the examples of automobile safety and tobacco use, two significant public safety issues where the government responded in ways that dramatically reduced injury and death, success came from defining the problem, identifying risk factors, testing prevention strategies, and ensuring widespread adoption of effective solutions. By using this same process we can reduce gun-related deaths and injuries.
Here are specific actions that should be taken: