Students Will Press Lawmakers on Gun Control Efforts at a Town Hall April 4

The student organizers are demanding gun control legislation at the local, state and national levels.

Portland March For Our Lives. March 24, 2018. Photo credit: Aubrey Gigandet

Middle school, high school and college students will question legislators about gun control at a town hall at Portland State University on April 4. They intend to press representatives to enact more gun control measures.

The event will feature multiple speakers, including a PSU student who was enrolled at Umpqua Community College during a 2015 mass shooting.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer and staff members from Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkely's offices will also attend.

The student organizers are demanding gun control legislation at the local, state and national levels.

"After each mass shooting, there are calls for change and hope for a different, safer future," the event organizers wrote in the invitation. "Soon after every attack, that fire dies, and we forget about the issue until the next tragedy hits. We say no more: it is time for action and time to end this cycle of violence and apathy."

The event comes a little over a month after a mass shooter at a Florida high school killed 17 people. Since the Feb. 14 attack, gun control advocates have won several major victories.

In Oregon and across the country, retailers restricted firearm sales in response to growing concerns over gun violence. Several young men in Oregon have challenged those restrictions in court and with discrimination complaints. Fred Meyer decided to phase out all gun and ammunition sales.

Mayor Ted Wheeler joined a coalition of mayors asking lawmakers to get out of their way and allow them to restrict gun regulations locally. Young activists have joined an inter-faith organization's efforts to put an assault weapon ban on the November ballot. And the state's labor commissioner has vowed to propose legislation that would raise the minimum age to buy a gun in Oregon to 21.

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