Grassroots Campaign to Put Gun Control on the Oregon Ballot This Fall Now Says It’s Collected 90,000 Signatures

Organizers of Initiative Petition 17 say they can make the deadline for the November ballot.

SIGN UP: A volunteer gathers signatures for Initiative Petition 17 during the Rose Parade. (Michael Raines)
By Rachel Monahan

Organizers of an Oregon initiative petition to require licenses for gun ownership and restrictions on the sale of high-capacity magazines have successfully gathered 90,000 signatures toward putting Initiative Petition 17 on the ballot.

Lift Every Voice Oregon, an interfaith group that supports greater gun control, reports it has gathered 30,000 signatures in the past week alone.

They need at least 112,020 by July 8, though they aim to gather at least 140,000—a number that they now say is realistic.

The school shooting in Texas and today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting states’ authority to restrict guns in public are keeping gun control prominently in the news. The ramifications of the Supreme Court ruling on other gun licensing laws are still being unpacked. (Lift Every Voice claimed the ruling wouldn’t affect its proposal, and pledged to release a legal analysis.)

But the immediate political effect may be helping the group gather signatures.

“We are going to pass the most progressive package in the nation,” Rev. Dr. W. J. Mark Knutson told WW earlier this month.

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