BAKER CITY (AP) - A group of rural Democrats is hoping state Democrats will agree to add more explicit support of the right to bear arms to the official party platform.

The gun control issue costs them dearly at election time in parts of Eastern Oregon, Baker County Democrats said.

The county party has drafted a resolution that it hopes will be taken up at the state party platform committee when it meets this weekend in West Linn.

The resolution states, in part, "The Democratic Party of Oregon resolves as follows: To recognize and support the right to keep and bear arms ... as an individual right not granted by the government but rather guaranteed by the government....The Democratic Party of Oregon further advocates severe penalties and their enforcement for criminal use or misuse of this right."

Baker City Democrat Chuck Butcher said he wanted to submit "a clear resolution without a lot of hedging, and frame it in language that could pass overwhelmingly, if the argument is presented correctly."

The current Republican party platform in Oregon says, "We adamantly oppose all attempts to undermine our constitutional right to bear arms in a manner of our choosing without license or other permission from the government."

"A lot of people have told us that if the Democrats would shift on the Second Amendment, they'd rejoin the party," Raffety said. "I think our party needs to take a look at what the grassroots people want. There's too much direction from Washington, D.C., and not enough asking what people really feel."

Oregon Democratic Party executive director Neel Pender said he thought the resolution sounded "pretty reasonable."

"I don't know any Democrats who don't have a healthy respect for the Second Amendment," Pender added.