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The latest from BERDICK!!
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PORTLAND, Ore. -- A new law requiring background checks for all firearm sales and transfers, including private transactions, goes into effect in Oregon Sunday.
But will anyone enforce it?
One of the main sponsors of the bill, State Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), admitted Friday the law doesn't include money for enforcement.
Still, Burdick said, "This will make it harder for the criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get guns."
If you sell a gun privately, in person or online, the law says you have to meet the buyer at a licensed gun shop and have them go through a background check, which Burdick says costs $10.
Law enforcement authorities in the Portland area and throughout the state say they won't go out and find people who are breaking the law, though they will investigate any reports they get.
"It's just a simple practicality - until we have the resources here to fully fund law enforcement and prosecution, new crimes probably aren't going to get much attention," Lane County Sheriff Byron Trapp said when asked about the bill in June.
"Some of this [enforcement] will most likely be after the fact," Burdick said. "If something, if someone commits a crime with a gun, you found out that it was sold without a background check, at that point you'd go after the person. Enforcement dollars are always limited."
Burdick also cited studies by the group Everytown For Gun Safety, which say in states with universal background checks, there's less gun trafficking and fewer police officers shot and killed in the line of duty.
Opponents dispute those findings and say the law is pointless.
"Are the gang-bangers in Northeast Portland that can't legally buy guns to begin with, that are shooting everybody every night, are they going to come in here to do background checks? No," said Warren Lacasse, owner of The Gun Room in Southeast Portland.
The law does have some exceptions: You can still legally give a gun to an immediate family member or borrow your friend's gun while hunting.
For more on the law, click here.
The latest from BERDICK!!
<broken link removed>
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A new law requiring background checks for all firearm sales and transfers, including private transactions, goes into effect in Oregon Sunday.
But will anyone enforce it?
One of the main sponsors of the bill, State Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), admitted Friday the law doesn't include money for enforcement.
Still, Burdick said, "This will make it harder for the criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get guns."
If you sell a gun privately, in person or online, the law says you have to meet the buyer at a licensed gun shop and have them go through a background check, which Burdick says costs $10.
Law enforcement authorities in the Portland area and throughout the state say they won't go out and find people who are breaking the law, though they will investigate any reports they get.
"It's just a simple practicality - until we have the resources here to fully fund law enforcement and prosecution, new crimes probably aren't going to get much attention," Lane County Sheriff Byron Trapp said when asked about the bill in June.
"Some of this [enforcement] will most likely be after the fact," Burdick said. "If something, if someone commits a crime with a gun, you found out that it was sold without a background check, at that point you'd go after the person. Enforcement dollars are always limited."
Burdick also cited studies by the group Everytown For Gun Safety, which say in states with universal background checks, there's less gun trafficking and fewer police officers shot and killed in the line of duty.
Opponents dispute those findings and say the law is pointless.
"Are the gang-bangers in Northeast Portland that can't legally buy guns to begin with, that are shooting everybody every night, are they going to come in here to do background checks? No," said Warren Lacasse, owner of The Gun Room in Southeast Portland.
The law does have some exceptions: You can still legally give a gun to an immediate family member or borrow your friend's gun while hunting.
For more on the law, click here.
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