SB 646 : Expanding Exemptions for Firearm Background Checks

Position: Oppose Status: Failed to pass out of Senate Judiciary Committee

A person is exempt from firearm background checks if the person is a participant in the Address Confidentiality Program.

Update

July 1, 2019

January 24, 2019: Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee January 22, 2019: Introduced by Senator Kim Thatcher

The Address Confidentiality Program is a substitute address and provides a free mail forwarding service. It helps survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking shield their physical address.

Program participants are provided with a substitute address to use instead of their real address. Participants may use the substitute address for:

• the delivery of first class, certified and registered mail,
• obtaining an Oregon driver’s license or ID card,
• receiving or paying child support,
• applying for a marriage license, and
• enrolling dependents in public school.

SB 646 provides an exemption from background checks for people enrolled in the Address Confidentiality Program which is not needed if a substitute address can be used.  Rather than carving out exception to an effective law, a solution is to add the background check system to the Address Confidentiality Program list.

If the legislators allow this exemption, will they also exempt the same groups from the requirement to have a drivers license or a professional license?

A similar bill, SB 854, was introduced in 2017 but lacked support to be voted out of the Judiciary Committee.