Firearms enthusiasts in Oregon flock to gun stores as they wait to find out if a federal judge will delay the start of a tough purchase permit law before Thursday’s deadline.
“The parking lot has been a disaster,” Northwest Armory owner Karl Durkheimer told Fox News. “The side streets around our place have been a mess.”
The Northwest Armory parking lot was packed on November 25, 2022, as Oregonians rushed to buy guns and ammunition magazines.
(Courtesy of Karl Durkheimer)
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Approved Measure 114 with 50.65% of the votes last month. It bans ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and mandates the creation of a purchase permit system that includes fingerprinting and hands-on firearms training from an instructor who has been certified by police. Permits can cost up to $65 under the measure and last for five years with a new background check required for each gun purchase.
Judge Karin J. Immergut heard more than two hours of arguments Friday related to the first lawsuit filed against the measure by the Oregon Firearms Federation, Sherman County Sheriff Brad Lohrey, and the owner of a gun store. The lawsuit alleges that both the shipper’s capacity limit and the purchase permit requirement violate the Second Amendment.
The sponsors of the measure hope that reduce violent crime, accidental deaths and suicides. Principal Assistant Attorney General Brian Simmonds Marshall argued in court documents that delaying the bill’s start date would “likely result in unnecessary deaths” and hamper Oregon’s efforts to “reduce the risk of massacre within its borders.” .
Immergut expects to make a decision early this week on whether the law should be delayed, according to Oregon reporter Maxine Bernstein.
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There is a lot of confusion about what will happen when the law goes into effect on December 8. Gun store owners and local police have said the permit system won’t be ready in time, but the Oregon State Police tried to allay those fears Friday afternoon in a news release. which stated that there would be a “manual paper process until new technical systems can be designed and implemented”.
“If there is no court order by the morning of the 8th, that will mean no gun sales on the 8th to Oregonians,” Durkheimer said before the OSP statement.
He expected sales to take a full year to resume because OSP initially predicted the purchase permit system wouldn’t start until around January 2024, based on a fiscal estimate prepared earlier this year by a state committee.
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“Oregon has yet to provide the necessary funds, let alone put in place the necessary systems to manage its burdensome new permit scheme,” alleges an NRA-backed lawsuit filed late last week. “At this time, there are no firearms training courses that have been certified by the state, which means that no one can legally obtain a purchase permit.”
Durkheimer believes the law is unconstitutional and will only affect law-abiding gun owners and not violent criminals.
“Controlling the tool is not going to change the human behavior of an evil person or a mentally deranged person,” Durkheimer told Fox News, adding that he would rather see the money Oregon expects to spend on the permit system targeting health services mental. .
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The family-run Northwest Armory has two locations in the Portland area and has been in business since 1992. Firearm sales to Oregonians account for 50% to 60% of its business, he said. Durkheimer.
“We’re trying to come up with a business plan for, how do we support our employees and their health insurance and our 401(K) through a year with very limited retail sales?” Durkheimer said.
A federal judge is expected to rule this week on whether to delay Oregon’s strict new gun control law.
(iStock)
Fortunately for the Northwest Armory, gross sales since Nov. 8 are the highest they’ve been in three decades of business, as customers rush to buy guns and magazines before the ban takes effect, Durkheimer said.
OSP’s background check unit has seen “unprecedented volumes of firearms transactions” in the past month. State police received about 849 background check requests the day before the election, but that average shot up to 4,092 requests per day immediately after voters approved Measure 114.
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Last Thursday, Durkheimer said there were more than 30,000 background checks pending. Anyone whose background check has not passed by December 8 will have to wait to get a permit, according to OSP.
Regardless of what Immergut decides, Durkheimer said his stores will be closed on December 8.
“We have been working seven days a week, 12 hours a day for a month,” he said. “We’re going to be closed for a couple of days to take a break and catch up.”
