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A GUN DEALER TAKES ON OREGON'S "NEW" BACKGROUND CHECKS |
June
2006.
By Sheriff Mike Cook
As the manager of a new firearms dealership here in Oregon I
felt it was important to give you a heads up about something
that is doing harm to our business and causing people to be
delayed for long amounts of time to purchase a firearm and take
it into possession. This is a violation of their Constitutional
rights to bear arms as I see it.
The case in point is about a man who came in and ordered a firearm
for his own protection as he had just been issued a concealed
carry license and wanted a firearm for this purpose. He came
into my shop ordered the firearm and it was delivered for his
pickup on May 24, 2006 at which time he filled out the federal
form 4473. He answered all the questions on this form with NO
with exception of the first question to which he responded "yes."
Seeing that the form was filled out properly I then called the
Oregon State Police I.D. Section and ran the usual background
check. At that time they delayed him. I explained this and held
the firearm. After a delay of seven days until May 31, 2006
they called back and delayed him again. Then they called back
and delayed him a third time until June 16, 2006. The next call
delayed him until June 21, 2006. I finally got authorization
to deliver the firearm to him on June 20, 2006. This was almost
a month long ordeal for him and our business.
I opened this firearms store on March 7th, 2006 and have had
about five or six delays to date. I do not know what the average
was except when I worked at another gun store for the previous
five years we had very few delays.
The problem comes that if you are delayed they will not tell
you why. However if you are denied they will tell you why with
a phone call to them. I must provide you with a number to call
if you are denied.
As there have been many more delays lately Kevin Starrett of
OFF informed me that the Oregon State Police I.D. Section had
been informed by the FBI that they were in violation of the
Brady Act which requires them to check out domestic violence
arrests. So a new policy was put into place, as they believe
federal law over rides Oregon law, and mandates that they follow
federal law. The act makes it so that you can’t own firearms
if you have ever been convicted of a crime of domestic violence
at any time in the past.
Here is the problem. If you moved here from another state or
lived for a time in another state then they must check with
that state to see if you were convicted if they see an arrest
on your record.
The man who was delayed at my store moved into Oregon from another
state. Back in the 70’s his 16 year old daughter had been
forbidden from going to the prom when she got into trouble.
So she was upset and cooked up a plan with her older sister
to turn her father in for assault. She had some bruises to show
from playing sports and told a very good lie to the police.
So he got arrested and taken to the local police department.
When the full story came out he was never formally charged or
convicted of a crime, and the matter was dropped. However on
his record it shows an arrest. So when this state was contacted
for the full story it took a long time for them to respond as
the report had been archived and was on microfiche. This is
why the long delay. (As a side note they even talked about charging
his daughter with filling a false police report, but this never
happened.)
As I see it, there is a much simpler way to handle this.
As Kevin has pointed out, Oregon law requires that after a delay
the FFL dealer can deliver the firearm after the next day’s
close of business. In other words they have 24 hours to get
back or the person can pick up the firearm anyway. This has
never been followed to my knowledge. Most dealers don’t
complain as they don’t want to deal with the problems
it would cause.
However there is a simple fix to this problem. On the 4473 form
is the question, "have you ever been convicted of a crime
of domestic violence?"
If the person answered this with a NO and they have been, then
they are guilty of false swearing on that document which is
a crime. This is how it should be dealt with as all the information
on how to contact them and arrest them for that crime is on
the document. The firearm can be recovered at that time.
Even when a person is denied on the purchase of a firearm it
means that they have committed the crime, however no one, to
my knowledge, has been charged with this crime in Oregon. So
the innocent citizen is being delayed and this is very wrong.
Our legislators or the courts should deal with this problem
once and for all and quit causing a problem for the business
and the honest citizens. I think it’s time to either go
back to the federal system or change the policy at the OSP I.D.
section to make them fall in line with Oregon law.
With the federal system (NICS) you don’t even need to
do the background if the person has a valid Concealed Carry
License (CCW) or if they are a police officer on active duty
or honorable retired. There is no charge for the check to be
done on this system and no record is supposed to be kept for
any length of time.
Under our system where the State Police I.D. Section is the
point of contact, everyone must go through the check and there
is a $10.00 charge for this "service."
So far this year they have taken in over $600,000 dollars of
your hard earned dollars with this system. This is nothing more
than a hidden sales tax on firearms. They also keep a record
of this sale along with information on the firearm and its serial
number for five years. This has been adjudicated by our federal
courts as un-Constitutional. No one in Oregon has challenged
this, why?
The system could be simplified by having a small device in each
business that when a person wants to buy a firearm we could
then swipe his or her driver’s license which has a bar
code on it, and it would say approved, denied, or please call
if there is some other problem. If they have a CHL they have
already been through the background check and paid for it. The
state has no business knowing what kind of firearm was purchased
or its serial number. There are already checks in place to catch
stolen firearms. As for the cost, that should be provided by
the federal government out of the general fund taxes we pay.
I say it’s time for action. The system is not working
and needs to be fixed. We should ask everyone running for the
legislature how they intend to fix these problems if they want
our vote.
Michael E. Cook, Coos County Sheriff, Retired.
Manager of Bay
Area Firearms Llc, North Bend, Oregon
541-756-4300
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© 2000 - 2008, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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