Background checks for gun sales in Oregon remained high last year but did not the top the state’s record year in 2020, according to a new state police report.
Oregon State Police last year conducted 338,330 background checks on prospective gun buyers, a drop from 2020, when the state recorded the most, 418,061. Yet last year’s number was still far greater than the background checks in each of the three previous years from 2017 through 2019, figures show.
For the past 25 years, less than 2% of people in Oregon seeking to buy a gun have been denied due to a failed background check, according to the state police’s latest report obtained Tuesday.
Last year, 95%, or 320,735, of the purchases were approved after background checks were done.
The state police Firearms Instant Check System Unit has struggled to keep up with the increased volume of gun buyers and required background checks.
Under Oregon law, the police agency conducts state and national criminal background checks for federally licensed gun dealers and private people before a gun is sold or transferred. State law also requires a background check for all gun transfers, including those that take place at a gun show and between private parties.
The goal is to ensure the timely transfer of a firearm to eligible buyers while also keeping guns out of the hands of those that are prohibited under state or federal law, according to state police.
Under federal law, however, a gun dealer may sell a firearm to someone if a background check is not completed within three business days.
Last year, state police approved 320,735 gun purchases and denied 1,129 purchases after conducting background checks. That compares with 394,011 approved and 2,119 denied in 2020, according to the latest report.
In 2021, most denials occurred because the person had been convicted of a felony, was on probation for a criminal conviction, or had been convicted of domestic abuse.
Last year, 1,101 people were denied guns due to background checks in Oregon. Of those denials, 58 were people who had been previously been committed to a mental health institution, according to the data.
About 100 were denied because the guns sought for sale came back as having been reported stolen.
Washington County recorded the most gun purchase with 47,761, followed by Clackamas County with 33,558, Lane County with 32,090 then Multnomah County with 23,789, according to the state police.
But when analyzed per 10,000 residents 18 or older, Harney County recorded the most gun buys with 2,180 per capita, followed by Union County with 1,851, and Crook County with 1,795.
Nearly 40% of the state police gun background checks were completed within three days.
Yet about 14% took six months or longer to complete, meaning the gun sales could proceed before a background check was done.
State police said the agency fielded more calls last year from people challenging the denials of their background checks or calling with questions about the checks that were pending. As of April of this year, the unit would only receive people’s challenges of denied sales due to failed background checks by email or U.S. mail.
The state police Firearms Instant Check System unit operates seven days a week, 14 hours a day and is closed two days out of the year on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The 30-member unit includes 26 background check staff and other support staff and a program manager.
After the unit was deluged in 2020 with an unprecedented increase in gun purchases and background check requests, state police asked lawmakers for more budgeted positions.
The Legislature during the regular session last year approved $2.6 million in one-time general fund spending to support 17 additional positions, including 12 part-time staff, to help address a backlog of gun background checks. Recruitment began in November to try to fill those jobs, and the first new hires will start training in January, according to the state police report.
“It takes awhile to recruit and then train, and the people who are training are offline and their production is reduced,” said Capt. Stephanie Bigman, a state police spokesperson.
As a result, the unit logged 1,225 hours in overtime last year, a drop from the 1,354 overtime hours in 2020 but much higher than the overtime put in each year from 2017 through 2019.
“Events that occurred throughout 2020 severely impacted service levels within the (Firearms Instant Check System) program in nearly every way possible,” the state police report said. “Background check volumes soared with the onset of COVID-19, followed by months of social unrest both locally and nationally, as well as stimulus money distribution and finally the presidential election.”
The higher demand for guns came at time when the firearms unit suffered staff shortages due to absences resulting from COVID-19, coronavirus-related safety directives that restricted staffing in the office and remote work that challenged the background check function, the report said.
Since 2011, the firearms unit has allowed gun dealers to submit a request for a background check online as an alternative to placing a phone call, and a majority of the requests come into the unit via the internet, according to the report. The state police website now says the unit will only accept requests for background checks via its online portal.
While staff in the unit typically review and conduct the checks, about 38% of the requests were automatically processed. That occurs if there’s no possible matches to criminal justice databases and no discrepancies detected in the information submitted, according to state police.
Most gun sales that were denied in the state last year were because the person attempting to buy a firearm had been convicted of a felony or domestic abuse or was on probation, state police data shows.
Completion of background checks sometimes are dependent on agencies out of state to respond to questions about a person’s criminal record, and states’ response times vary widely from several days to several months, the report said.
State police also check and ensure the gun sought for sale has not been reported stolen.
The day with the most gun purchases last year was the day after Thanksgiving. In 2020, however, March 20 saw the highest gun purchases.
According to national figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 118 guns in Oregon were reported lost or stolen last year, with the majority, 78, reported to have been taken during a burglary.
The state does not have data on background checks done so far this year.
But the FBI has monthly data for the first four months of this year, based solely on background checks initiated through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS, which are viewed as a proxy for sales.
In the first four months of this year, there were 135,610 background checks done for prospective Oregon gun purchasers through the national check system, down from 175,907 done in the same period in 2021.
The state police Firearms Instant Check Unit conducts both statewide criminal background checks and checks through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
As of May 3 of this year, there were 310,630 concealed handgun licenses in the state, according to Bigman.
“Different world events cause a lot of these upticks in gun sales,” she added, noting there seemed to be an increase in gun purchases following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year.
Under Oregon law, a person may not sell, deliver or transfer any gun when the person knows or reasonably should know that the recipient is under 18, has been convicted of a felony, has any outstanding felony arrest warrant, is free on any pretrial release for a pending felony charge, was found by a court to suffer from mental illness and be committed to treatment, was convicted of a violent misdemeanor or found guilty except for insanity of a felony or a misdemeanor involving violence, or if the gun is stolen.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
