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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

OR Extends Background Checks to All Gun Sales

(CN) - Oregon became the eighth state in the nation to require background checks for all gun sales after Gov. Kate Brown signed SB 941 into law on Monday.

The bill enhances stringent background requirements already in place under the Brady Law, a federal regulation signed in 1992 that mandates background checks for guns purchased from federally licensed dealers, and legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers in 2000 that extended the checks to guns sold at gun shows.

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the bill signed Monday closes the "vast Internet loophole" by requiring anyone buying a gun in Oregon to go through a background check before purchase.

The background checks and laws stem from the work of James Brady, a White House press secretary under Ronald Reagan. Brady was nearly killed and permanently disabled in the attempted assassination of Reagan by John Hinkley, Jr. in 1981.

"Oregon's legislature has succeeded where our national Congress has failed, and every Oregonian will be safer because of it," said Brady Campaign president Dan Gross. "This makes Oregon the sixth state in the last two years to expand Brady background checks to all gun sales, and we intend to continue to take this fight state by state until Congress ultimately wakes up and gets the message to 'finish the job' and expand life-saving Brady background checks to every gun show and Internet sale in this country."

The six states passed enhanced background checks following the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

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