The clock is ticking

I got an email message yesterday from the group trying to get a real gun control measure on the November ballot here in Oregon. I guess we're supposed to use some other term for it, like "gun violence reduction," but hey, cut the crap. We need gun control. Badly.

Anyway, the good news is, the sponsors of the ballot measure have 70,000 signatures on their petitions in hand. The bad news is, they're trying to get 140,000, and the deadline is July 8. That's three weeks from tomorrow.

It's Initiative Petition (IP) 17. The website is here. If you are a registered Oregon voter and you have not signed it, please do so. You can print it out, sign it at home, and mail it in. Or look for signature-gatherers around town. I believe they are all unpaid volunteers. They tend to show up at big events, but you might see one in a quieter setting.

Don't kid yourself. The politicians simply are not going to get anything meaningful done on this. They haven't touched it for ages. We have to go over their heads. It will take 50 years to clean up the bloody mess the gun manufacturers and gun nuts have made. But we have to start somewhere, and this is it. So sign, please.