Oregon Sen.

, R-Dallas, has found what he thinks is a colorful way to point out what he sees as the absurdity of tougher gun control measures.

He's introduced a not-meant-for-passage bill

. Boquist said in a statement on his web site that he wanted to "broaden the discussion on school violence and mass attacks. It is not simply a firearms issue."

He argued that Japan and China have firearms bans "but still have hundreds of injuries or deaths from mass knife attacks."

Instead, he argued, that "step one" in dealing with violence is grappling with the "growing mental health crisis."

Officials from Ceasefire Oregon, which has backed tighter firearms regulations, could not be immediately reached for comment.



UPDATE

:

Penny Okamoto, Ceasefire's executive director, said Boquist is downplaying the "lethality of guns" in comparing them to knives. She noted that "sadly, there is a perfect example of that" given that a man used a knife to attack several schoolchildren in China on the same day that a shooter killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn.



The knife attack in Chengping left 22 children and one adult injured, making it far less lethal than the Newtown shootings. Okamoto said she agrees the state should improve its mental health system but that this is only one factor in tackling gun violence.

More

The summary of

makes it clear Boquist has modeled his tongue-in-cheek legislation on laws dealing with background checks for gun purchases: