LOCALNEWS
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THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012
LILY RAFF MCCAULOU
Firearm safety? Just ASK S
ummer vacation is here, which means children have loads of free time to play and explore. It also means parents should take a few extra steps to help ensure that their kids stay out of trouble. One way to do that is by asking a simple question: “Is there a gun where my child plays?” The nonprofit Center to Prevent Youth Violence sponsors ASK Day — on Thursday, the first day of summer — as a reminder to parents. The acronym stands for Asking Saves Kids. The point isn’t to keep kids away from homes with guns. Children can certainly be raised safely in a home with firearms. About one in five U.S. households contains guns, according to recent surveys. Thankfully, fatal accidents are relatively rare. In 2009, for example, 138 children and teens died of accidental shootings in the U.S. That same year, more than seven times as many children — 1,056 — accidentally drowned. If your child were playing near a pool or a lake, you’d take safety precautions. The same should be true for guns. When I took a hunter safety course six years ago, I was the only adult in a class full of children. To a person, my classmates took seriously the task of safe gun-handling. It was reassuring to see them treating firearms with respect. But as a gun owner and a new parent, I know that I can never be too careful. I keep my guns unloaded and locked, with the ammunition stored separately. Kids are naturally curious. With a loaded weapon, this curiosity could — in an instant — turn tragic. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 3,588 children and teens were treated in emergency rooms for accidental gunshot wounds in 2009. A year-round telephone survey, called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, found in 2008 that about 44 percent of Oregon households contain guns. In over 54 percent of those homes, guns were stored unlocked. The beauty of the ASK approach is that it’s simple and non-political.
Everyone can agree Everyone — from the lifetime member of the National Rifle Association to the person who has never held a gun in his or her life — can agree that unsupervised children shouldn’t be handling firearms. To avoid awkwardness, ask the parents of your child’s playmates about guns while you’re talking about other safety or health-related concerns — food, pets, televisionwatching habits or allergies, for example. There’s no need to be confrontational. After all, you’re simply making sure that your child is in a safe environment — something any parent will understand. Ask: “Are there guns where my child will be playing?” If the answer is no, you have one less thing to worry about. If the answer is yes, ask a couple of follow-up questions: Are the guns unloaded? Are they locked up, with the ammunition stored separately? If not, invite the children to play somewhere else, such as at your own house. It’s also a good idea to talk to your children about guns. Teach them that if they see a gun, they should not touch it, but find an adult to tell. And when kids are mature enough, a hunter safety class will instill a sense of respect for firearms and a basic understanding of how to handle them properly. In the meantime, ASK. From reading to art to fishing to swimming, there is plenty for kids to get involved with this summer. A loaded gun shouldn’t be one of them. — Lily Raff McCaulou is a columnist for The Bulletin. 541-617-7836, lraff@bendbulletin.com
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LA PINE
LOCAL BRIEFING
Birds make mess of City Hall
Cold front rolls into region
• Protected swallows find a happy home under a government rooftop By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin
A swarm of swallows has taken up residency under the eaves of La Pine City Hall, requiring almost daily cleanup of the sidewalk below. While Steven Hasson, the city manager turned sidewalk sweeper, happily
talks about his plans for a mesh screen and a faux owl sentry to one day keep the birds — which he identified as cliff swallows — away. For now, they are here to stay. The swallows are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Act, which prohibits meddling in migratory bird nests while they hold eggs or hatchlings. “It’s a little bit like a Hitchcock movie down here,” Hasson said. “At certain times of the day, they are flocking.” While the flying stars of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” were out
to attack people, the swallows at La Pine City Hall are focused only on eating insects from nearby marshland and bringing food home to their young. The birds are messy, though. “You are seeing an accumulation of feather and dirt and poop on all sides of the building,” Hasson said. So most mornings, Hasson grabs a broom and cleans off the sidewalk outside the building, which became City Hall about seven months ago. See Swallows / B2
Demolition daddies
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Drivers in the midsized car division smash into each other during the 42nd Annual Bend Sunrise Lions Club Demolition Derby at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond on Sunday. George McLean, 58, of Bend, driving the car on the left, was the winner of the division.
• The Lions Club fundraiser remains a destructive Father’s Day tradition By Dylan J. Darling • The Bulletin
O
ver the last six months, Mark Jeys’ three children helped
Rock chuck hunt ends in arrest
their daddy build his dream
car, only to have him smash, bash and crash it. Don’t worry, that was the plan. Jeys was among the drivers Sunday at the 42nd Annual Bend Sunrise Lions Club Demolition Derby at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond. “It’s just something to be out and have fun with the kids,” said Jeys, 33, of Prineville. His kids — Chase, 12, Bailey, 8, and Trent, 2 — rode in the 1982 Buick when it was still in one piece during the parade of cars before the derby. See Derby / B2
Prineville’s Chase Jeys, 12, helps his dad, Mark Jeys, with some last-minute tightening of the lid on a battery box in a 1982 Buick before the start of the Bend Sunrise Lions Club Demolition Derby on Sunday afternoon.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Homicide investigation detailed in report By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
Court documents filed last week in Jefferson County Circuit Court shed new light on how Warm Springs Police officers and Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies followed crime scene clues and tracked down suspects to make arrests in the wake of the discovery of a body in an abandoned railroad tunnel. Steven Anderson Jr., 23, and James R. Johnson, 31, both of Warm Springs, are being held in the Jef-
Winds on an otherwise bright, sunny and warm Sunday were signs that a shift in weather could be coming to Central Oregon. A cold front is likely to have moved in by today, dropping the high Inside tempera•Detailed ture to the five-day lower 60s, forecast, after a B6 weekend with temperatures around 80 degrees, said Douglas Weber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Pendleton. The leading edge of the cold front stirred up winds Sunday, with gusts around 22 mph in Bend. As more cold systems roll through this week, the weather is expected to bob between cool and warm. “You are going to be on kind of a roller coaster of temperatures (this week),” Weber said. The bottom of the ride should be today, with a high of 62 degrees, Weber said. The top will likely be Thursday, with a high of 76. Lows during the week should range from 37 in the early hours of this morning to 48 on Thursday morning. The high for Friday is up in the air, hinging on when another cold front hits. Weber said it could be near 80, or closer to 70. This weekend will likely be cooler than last, with highs in the 60s. So far, June weather has followed the cool trend of the last couple of years in Central Oregon, Weber said, and summer days are still likely a way off. “It’s almost like it waits for July to hit for summer to start,” he said.
ferson County jail, charged with one count each of murder and firstdegree manslaughter. On June 7, the pair pleaded not guilty to the charges. The charges stem from the May 29 death of Dennis Jones, a 48-yearold Seattle man whose body was found by a fisherman in an old railroad tunnel near Warm Springs on May 30. Search and arrest warrants show when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the tunnel, they were able to quickly
determine how Jones likely died and saw hints about what might have transpired in the attack. Deputies found footprints, a large pool of blood near the entrance and drag marks in the dirt from the blood to where Jones’ body lay, according to a search warrant affidavit. Jones’ head was covered in blood and “the injuries ... appeared to be caused by blunt force,” the search warrant states. See Investigation / B2
A transient man was arrested on weapons charges Sunday after firing a handgun in a church parking lot east of Bend, apparently in an effort to kill a rock chuck for supper, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. A call about shots being fired at the Christian Life Center on U.S. Highway 20 near Hamby Road came in around 6:30 p.m., said Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Dizney. Deputies responded quickly, he said, fearing someone could be shooting at the church or people attending an event there. That wasn’t the case, Dizney said. “It was just a transient who found an opportunity for some food,” he said. The rock chuck wasn’t harmed in the shooting, Dizney said. Deputies arrested the man on suspicion of having a concealed, stolen gun and shooting in a way that was dangerous to passing cars. The man, Kerry Schoenborn, 51, was being held Sunday night at the Deschutes County jail on $22,000 bail, according to the jail website. He was being held on suspicion of three counts of carrying a concealed weapon; two counts each of unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering; and one count of first-degree theft. — Bulletin staff reports
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