UPDATE: President leaves Portland, headed for Seattle

PORTLAND (AP) — Advocates demanding tougher gun-control laws were among several dozen demonstrators who greeted President Barack Obama outside a fundraising stop in Oregon on Tuesday.

In the wake of a mass shooting that killed 12 and injured 58 others in Aurora, Colo., last week, demonstrators said Obama needs to stand up to the deep-pocketed National Rifle Association. They want him to push Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines that expired in 2004.

“He hasn’t been aggressive about promoting change in the culture of violence,” said DeEtte Waleed of Portland, who added that she’ll nonetheless vote for him because “the alternative is just too scary to contemplate.”

Protesters were kept far back from the entrance to the Oregon Convention Center, where the president was scheduled to hold a fundraiser Tuesday afternoon for his re-election campaign. His motorcade did not pass them.

Obama’s plane touched down about 11:30 a.m. at the base for the 142nd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard. He left shortly after 5 p.m. for Seattle, where he’s scheduled to stay the night and hold more fundraisers on Wednesday.

Among a few dozen supporters awaiting Obama at the airport was his brother-in-law, Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson, who got a presidential hug.

On his way to the convention center, the president stopped at a Portland diner and ate a grilled cheese sandwich and split pea and ham soup. Tim King, a server at Gateway Breakfast House, said the restaurant offered Obama lunch on the house, but Obama insisted on paying.

Firing up contributors, Obama slammed rival Mitt Romney’s economic plan, saying the former Massachusetts governor would promote failed policies and cut taxes on the rich. The president pledged to raise taxes on the wealthy and spend money on infrastructure projects.

“I want to take half of the money that we’re saving on war, and let’s put people back to work, a whole bunch of hard hats out there rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our schools,” Obama said.

Romney and his allies have hammered Obama for days over a comment that they say suggests the president doesn’t believe entrepreneurs are responsible for their own success.

Obama pushed back, telling his Portland audience that his rival is taking his comment way out of context. Speaking in Virginia this month, Obama was trying to make the point that individual success is aided by supportive teachers, government-funded research and public infrastructure.

“We did not build this country alone, we did it together,” Obama said. “If Mr. Romney doesn’t understand that, then he doesn’t understand what it takes to grow this economy in the 21st century.”