ORE. BILL WOULD REQUIRE GUNS IN HOMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302140068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SALEM, ORE.                                LENGTH: Medium
ORE. BILL WOULD REQUIRE GUNS IN HOMES
State Rep. Liz Van Leeuwen says one way to fight crime in Oregon is to make everyone armed and dangerous.
The veteran legislator is sponsoring a bill requiring each home to have at least one firearm and ammunition on hand. No one would be penalized for failing to have a gun, but Van Leeuwen said outlaws would get the message anyway.
"Criminals have learned now that crime does pay. They're long gone when the police get there," she says. "They're not as likely to do it if there's a threat of deadly force."
Van Leeuwen, 67, introduced the bill Jan. 29 at the urging of a gun dealer. Patterned after a city ordinance passed 12 years ago in Kennesaw, Ga., it requires gun-safety training and exempts those who oppose gun possession.
As word spread, talk shows around the country came calling. Van Leeuwen, a Republican, said she's astonished at the controversy.
The national media "seem surprised that regular folks can come up with new ideas," she said.
Although Van Leeuwen admits there's a "remote chance" that increasing the number of guns in homes could lead to more domestic violence, Jim Ricke, the gun store owner who requested it, insists that it would not.
Those making that claim "are people who don't know which end of a gun to hold on to," he said.
The gun ordinance passed in Kennesaw, Ga., in 1981. Burglaries initially dropped by 65 percent, to 19 in 1982, but then began climbing and totaled 74 in 1990.
Van Leeuwen doesn't carry a gun but keeps some at home on the family grass-seed farm near Halsey, where armed neighbors have scared off would-be thieves.
"They just fire shots into the air," she said. "It pretty well keeps them from coming back."
Gun organizations aren't necessarily enthused about the bill. John Nichols, director of the Oregon State Shooting Association, said his group would oppose it.
"We don't want the government requiring anyone to have a gun any more than we support the idea that the government can take guns away from people," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB