During the week of Oct. 30, state police received 8,609 requests for gun background checks on prospective buyers. The following election week on Nov. 6, requests more than doubled to 18,065, according to Capt. Stephanie Bigman, a state police spokeswoman. That has translated into an increased state police backlog in processing required background checks and customers waiting longer to walk out of a gun store, according to state police and gun shop owners. The number of people awaiting state police approval for background checks also doubled in the past two weeks, from 10,000 to about 20,000, as voters voted in one of the nation’s strictest gun control measures. “Our backlogs increased significantly in early 2020 and were on a downward trend until this recent election cycle,” said Capt. Kyle Kennedy, another state police spokesman. Voters narrowly passed Measure 114 last Tuesday, which would have required Oregon residents to have a permit to buy a gun and enacted a ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Last year, Oregon State Police conducted 338,330 background checks on prospective gun buyers, a drop from 2020, when the state ran the most, 418,061. This year through Nov. 14, state police conducted 280,552 background checks. Oregon State Police State police have approved about 63 percent of the requests received so far this month, they said. “This unit is working with these volumes of extreme firearms requests and will continue to process them as quickly as possible,” state police said in a statement Wednesday. Last year, Oregon State Police conducted 338,330 background checks on prospective gun buyers, a drop from 2020, when the state ran the most, 418,061. This year through Nov. 14, state police conducted 280,552 background checks. Under Measure 114, people who want to buy a gun in Oregon would have to apply to a county sheriff for a permit, pay a $65 fee, be fingerprinted, complete gun safety training weapons and undergo a criminal background check. The license will be good for five years. Every time a licensee goes to buy a gun, the dealer must again receive a completed and approved state police firearms background check before taking delivery of the gun. Rules and funding to support the licensing process and additional background checks have yet to be determined, but proponents of Measure 114 are trying to work with state lawmakers and state police to create a committee or task force to address those details. The pre-election average reflects the date range from Jan. 1 to Nov. 8, 2022. The post-election range in this graphic covers Nov. 9 to 13, 2022, state police say. When the post-election date range was extended from Nov. 9 to 15, the average daily request dropped slightly to 3,104, Capt. Stephanie Bigman said. Oregon State Police The firearms processing unit has 30 staff — one manager, three supervisors and 26 full-time examiners. It has funding for 13 part-time examiners and four part-time specialists, but has filled only two of the examiner posts and two of the specialist posts. Bigman said the agency is still evaluating staffing needs for the purchase permit program. State police are working with the Oregon Department of Justice and the sheriffs’ and chiefs’ associations to determine what additional staff, money and procedures are needed to implement the law. When Measure 114 made the ballot, state police estimated at the time that they would need 38 new positions to handle the increased workload. In August, state police said they were working to reduce gun background check delays due to an increase in gun sales starting in 2020. Each processor in the unit can complete 10,782 background checks annually, according to state police. State police now believe the measure will go into effect sooner than its authors thought, based on advice from the Secretary of State’s Office. It is now December 8th, 30 days since it was “enacted or adopted”. Authors of measure 114 they said they were led to believe the effective date would be 30 days from Dec. 15, the deadline for voting certification. Ben Morris, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said the confusion may have stemmed from this year’s change that allows ballots to be postmarked on Election Day on Nov. 8 and counted if they arrive within seven days of the election. That pushed the state deadline for official vote certification to Dec. 15, creating the unusual circumstance that a ballot’s effective date — Dec. 8 — is before the deadline for vote certification. “In previous years, those dates would have been aligned,” Morris said. Liz McKanna, a legislative committee member for the Lift Every Voice Oregon campaign, said it’s now up to the state police and others to “do everything they can” to implement a permit-to-buy program as reasonably possible. “We believe the measure will save lives, so that’s very positive,” he said. Regardless, she and the lead sponsors of Measure 114 said they expect a legislative task force to be formed to iron out details that have yet to be ironed out and hope the governor could step in to delay the new effective date. of law or the date that certain provisions of the measure can be “implemented”, if necessary. “We want it to be a fair and just system and be as clear as possible,” McKanna said of the permitting process. A spokesman for Gov. Kate Brown said the governor does not have the authority to extend the effective date of the measure. “As with past practice, the Governor plans to sign the proclamation certifying the election when she receives it from the Secretary of State. Our understanding is that we should receive it from the Secretary of State’s office on Dec. 8,” said Liz Merah, Brown’s spokeswoman. The Oregon Firearms Association, which opposed the measure, called the date the measure is now expected to go into effect, with no process to support a permit-to-buy program, “crazy even by Oregon standards,” in a email to federation supporters. Measure 114 opponents fear the measure will increase the background check pending and causing unnecessary delays for people who can legally purchase a gun and want to protect themselves The State Police are “hopelessly hamstrung, pardon the pun,” said Tim Barnes, a federal firearms dealer who owns the Tigard Pawn 4 More store. “They don’t have the staff or the equipment.” Barnes sells guns, handles gun transfers as an authorized dealer, and holds guns as collateral against pawn loans. Trudi Lacasse, spokeswoman for The Gun Room in Southeast Portland, said interested gun buyers, including people with concealed handgun permits, find the state police queue “too long” to get a comprehensive background check. They have to wait a few weeks, he said. But no one leaves her store with a gun until they are approved through a comprehensive background check, she added. Barnes spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive this week as he processed a prospective gun buyer at his pawn shop and told the customer, who has a concealed handgun permit, that he was number 2,182 on the state police gun background check list. “It’s like waiting to see a Led Zeppelin concert, to get in to see him you have to go through the door,” Barnes said. “This guy is the 2,182nd person in line that stretches out in the parking lot before he gets to the door, before he’s looked at by the state police and processed.” Barnes said he doesn’t see any concerted push to acquire magazines with more than 10 rounds. “Honestly, a lot of people are probably hanging on to them, just waiting to see what happens,” he said. Karl Durkheimer, whose family owns two Northwest Armory stores in Milwaukie and Tigard and one in Scottsdale, Arizona, said gun sales are heavily influenced by news headlines. Its stores saw significant increases in sales during the COVID-19 lockdown and during social unrest and protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in late May 2020, he said. But he has seen nothing like the clamor for arms in the past week. “Human nature is when you can’t have something, you want it more,” he said. “The Wednesday after that election day was our biggest day. The Thursday after the election passed that Wednesday. It’s a record deal.” He said gun sales are the most popular right now, but not necessarily guns with magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, he said. Durkheimer, whose family has owned Northwest Armory for 30 years, said wait times for background checks have increased as a result. He said he can’t fathom how state police or county sheriffs will have a licensing process until the measure’s effective date and expects a lawsuit to put an end to the new law. If the measure’s effective date isn’t extended or put on hold, Durkheimer said he expects, “We’re going to sell a lot of binoculars and ammunition and 10-round magazines.” — Maxine Bernstein Email [email protected]; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
