Portland breaks annual murder record by over 2 months back in 2021

On October 19, 2021, Portland, Oregon, surpassed the record amount of homicides in any given year by 67 homicides from year to date.

Fox News reports that Portland’s record murder for a year was 66, set in 1987, but the city has seen 67 for 2021.

Associated Press notes that there have been “about 1,000 shootings” in Portland, and “firearms have accounted for three-quarters of homicides.”

Although many of the shootings are allegedly traceable to “gangs, fights and retaliatory killings”, the violence is so widespread that innocent spectators are in danger.

For example, 34-year-old Jacob Eli Knight Vasquez was hit by a stray bullet and killed in late September while sitting in a popular pizza bar.

Press Release: NW Portland Restaurant Homicide Victim Identified (Photo)
Link: https://t.co/bpFN9dgGaC pic.twitter.com/2qrqcQKFjL

– Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) September 25, 2021

Vasquez’s family pointed to police budget cuts and other restrictions that bind officers’ hands.

Vasquez’s brother-in-law, Don Osborn, said: “Let us please get rid of our law enforcement officials. I think if the right tools were in place for our police authorities, this would not even have happened. ”

June 22, 2021, Breitbart News observed Portland Police Association chief executive Daryl Turner describes officer morale as “as bad as it has ever been.”

Turner told NBC Nightly News that dismissal of the police had played a role in the circumstances:

Morale is as bad as it has ever been before. We are dealing with riots at a level and persistent violence that we have never seen before, we are looking at violence in our city, gun violence in our city that we have never seen before. We are looking at the most catastrophic staffing levels we have ever seen before; we look at budget cuts to mitigate ourselves to levels we have never seen before.

A Portland police officer pushes protesters back, September 26, 2020, in Portland. The protests that began over the assassination of George Floyd often result in frequent clashes between protesters and law enforcement. (AP Photo / John Locher)

Gabby Giffords Gun Control Outlet, Giffords, explains that Oregon has universal background checks, a red flag law and weapons storage requirements, among other checks.

Democrats at the federal level have spent years pushing for universal background checks and a red flag law as a way to make America safer.

TIMER Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and author / curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused oneedlel thing Second amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is a political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get the Down Range on breitbart.com/downrange.