Gun Sales Jump In Oregon With 36,000 People Waiting On Delayed Background Checks

Attempted gun purchases in Oregon continue to rise, as roughly 36,000 residents wait to purchase a firearm before a recently passed permit-to-purchase gun law takes effect, an Oregon gun store owner told Fox News.

Ballot Measure 114, often referred to as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, narrowly passed during the midterm elections, and 36,000 Oregon residents are currently backlogged in the background check process, Karl Durkheimer, owner of Oregon’s Northwest Armory gun store, said on Fox News’ “America Reports.” The measure was originally set to take effect Thursday, but Harney County, Oregon, Judge Robert Raschio placed a hold on the measure Tuesday, with the Oregon Supreme Court upholding the decision Wednesday.

The ballot measure, if implemented, will require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection and a permit to purchase any firearm. Anyone who has not been cleared by the postponed deadline will be required to go through the permit-to-purchase process, and many residents fear there will be significant delays, according to Fox News.

During election week, the Oregon state police reported more than 18,000 background check transactions, and the day-to-day background check numbers jumped from 850, prior to the midterms, to 4,000 after the law’s passing.

“Two things are happening. There’s fear they won’t be able to get a gun, but there’s the actual logistics that they won’t be able to do the background check,” Durkheimer said. “It’s going to take a year before an Oregonian has a permit.”

The effective date of the measure is expected within the next thirty days, and Durkheimer fears Oregon residents will not be able to purchase a firearm, according to Fox News. “That’s a violation of the Second Amendment. The Oregonians will lose their constitutional rights,” he said.

Oregon is a point of contact for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and background checks would normally require “seconds,” according to Durkheimer. However, the state does not have the resources “to do their job properly like they have been doing for 23 years,” he continued.

Following the measures passing, with 50.7% of the vote, multiple lawsuits were filed against Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, with The National Shooting Sports Foundation, Oregon State Shooting Association, Oregon Firearms Federation, Sherman County Sheriff’s Department, Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition filling suits that claim the measure infringes on Second Amendment rights.

“The deficiencies in this ballot measure cannot go unaddressed. Forget that it is scheduled to go into effect before Oregon even certifies the election, but it requires potential gun owners to take a class that has yet to be created, at a cost yet to be determined, so that they can obtain a permit that doesn’t actually give them permission to purchase a firearm,” National Rifle Association (NRA) Oregon State Director Aoibheann Cline previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Magazine capacity restrictions and permitting requirements have a proven track record: they save lives!” Rosenblum said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. “We are confident the Oregon Constitution — like the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — allows these reasonable regulations.”

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