Oregon law now includes provisions that require firearm dealers to maintain certain firearm background check forms for five years and to also submit certain information from background check records to the Department of State Police for inclusion in an electronic law enforcement database.

Firearms dealers are required to retain a firearms transaction thumbprint form for five years after completion of the form.¹ A law enforcement agency may inspect the records of a gun dealer relating to firearm transfers only with the consent of the gun dealer in the course of a reasonable inquiry during a criminal investigation or under the authority of a properly authorized subpoena or search warrant.²

Previously, Oregon law prohibited the State Police from retaining information obtained during a firearm background check request for more than five years. However, Oregon voters enacted a 2022 ballot measure that, among other things, now authorizes the State Police to retain certain information provided to a licensed dealer in a firearms transaction sufficient to identify each firearm purchased by a permit holder for inclusion in an electronic law enforcement database.³ Records of information obtained during a criminal records check request are exempt from disclosure under Oregon public records law.⁴

Oregon law also requires licensed firearms dealers (and other federal firearms licensees) to record certain information when they buy or accept in trade a used firearm; the dealer must enter in a register the time, date and place of purchase or trade, the name of person selling or trading the firearm, the number of the identification documentation presented by the person and the make, model and manufacturer’s number of the firearm.⁵ A duplicate of the register must be hand delivered or mailed to the local law enforcement authority on the day of purchase or trade.⁶

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1. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.412(2)(f).[↩]
2. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.412(8). See Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.434 (making the requirements of section 166.412 applicable to all firearms).[↩]
3. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.412(7)(a).[↩]
4. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.412(7)(b); Or. Admin. R. 257-010-0010(4), Or. Admin. R. 257-010-0055(3).[↩]
5. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.427(1).[↩]
6. Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.427(2).[↩]