Jackson County, Ore — It’s a national conversation that’s focus is shifting right here to Southern Oregon after the tragic events at Umpqua Community College this fall.
It’s controversial and complex but gun control and your rights as a gun owner in Oregon is a conversation that won’t be going away anytime soon.
So what safeguards are in place to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and ensure responsible gun owners maintain their 2nd Amendment Rights?
“We really like to have people, have firearms and know how to use them correctly,” said Dan Thornton.
At Good Guys Guns in Medford, Thornton says he’s seeing a lot of first time buyers this fall.
“A lot people have been thinking about getting their permit, I’ve been thinking about doing this, and now the awareness is back again and now they say I’m going to go ahead and do it,” said Thornton.
Oregon’s gun rules have changed a lot in the last few years, and recent events like the tragedy at Umpqua Community College have more people questioning who can and can’t legally buy a gun.
“It’s a 44-73, it’s a federal form, everybody in the country has to fill this out,” said Thornton, displaying a background check form. “Background check goes clear back to when you were born, so even stuff that happened when you were a minor can still come up.”
Oregon’s first major gun control law in years became law on august 9th. Senate Bill 941 requires a background check for every gun sold in the state.
That includes private parties but not family members or law enforcement.
Before that law was even written in the books it faced opposition in Southern Oregon, with several budget-strapped county sheriffs, including sheriff John Ward of Curry County and Sheriff Dave Daniel of Josephine County, saying they wouldn’t enforce a misdemeanor violation.
“At the end of the day it’s about money and persons as in our citizens and we don’t have the resources to investigate non property, non-persons crimes,” said Daniel.
Gun safety advocates say the law is a step in the right direction and doesn’t violate gun owner’s rights.
“The more that we can work together as gun owners and concerned citizens the more that we can reach mutually agreeable solutions on how to best let guns function in our society,” said Jennifer Lynch with the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety.
Lynch says this summer’s expansion of background checks is good news for all Oregonians, but more can be done.
“Right now the law says, that only those who have been adjudicated as mentally ill, as in a court of law they have been found as incapable of caring for themselves, are caught by that background check system, and we need to make sure that those records are always current and up to date, so nobody slips through the cracks,” said Lynch.
“If they’re going to pass a law and require background checks, then it’s my opinion that they’re going to need to provide a method of doing that.”
The law is similar to one passed in 2001 requiring background checks at gun shows. One big difference is the cost of doing the check.
“They’re requiring private party transfers outside of the gun shows to find somebody that has a federal firearms license and to do the transfer for them. The average cost for a federally licensed dealer to do that is about 40 dollars,” said Wes Knodel of Wes Knodel Gun Shows.
Knodel says that’s too much to ask of private citizens.
The law stands as written, what has yet to been seen is is it working?
Another big change for Oregon, before January First of this 2015 a marijuana conviction for possession of less than an ounce would disqualify you from buying a gun or even obtaining a concealed carry permit, now you can have either one conviction, or successfully complete a diversion class.
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