Federal officials who regulate firearms are only inspecting a small fraction of gun dealers in Oregon, records show.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aim to inspect every gun dealer in the US every three years. But records show that in 2022 and 2023, the agency inspected just 31 and 34 of Oregon鈥檚 roughly 2,000 firearms dealers 鈥� less than 2%.
ATF officials acknowledged to OPB that they don鈥檛 meet their internal goal, but said they are conducting inspections as efficiently as they can with limited resources.
But the lagging inspections alarm the gun safety advocacy group Alliance for a Safe Oregon, who said inspections are an early way to prevent gun violence.
鈥淭his is a huge part of making sure we鈥檙e not having a flow of illegal guns into our community,鈥� said Jess Marks, executive director of the group.
The primary concern to Marks is the practice of 鈥渟traw purchasing,鈥� when a person buys a gun for someone else. A straw purchase could be a one-off incident, or it could be connected to firearms trafficking.
With gun violence a priority throughout the state, Marks said her organization hoped to see more proactive regulation where guns are being sold.
鈥淎lmost everyone in Oregon agrees that we want to save lives, we want to reduce homicides and we want safe communities,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur dealers are not being inspected and have such little regulation.鈥�
The ATF is not required to routinely inspect gun dealers. The federal Gun Control Act, however, does forbid them from inspecting a gun dealer more than once a year.
Justin Lomax, an area supervisor for the ATF鈥檚 offices in the Northwest, agreed that inspections are falling short of the bureau鈥檚 three-year goal. But he said it鈥檚 a matter of resources.
The bureau鈥檚 Northwest offices, which encompass Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and territories in the Pacific, have only a handful of compliance investigators across the region.
鈥淲e believe that with our limited resources, we are conducting inspections as efficiently as possible,鈥� Lomax said.
But inspection rates aren鈥檛 the cause of gun crimes in Oregon, Lomax said. The bureau isn鈥檛 notified of every gun sale, he said, and much of the enforcement work relies on dealers to keep meticulous records and flag suspicious behavior.
鈥淎n important part of inspections is trying to educate licensees to be aware of what are indicators of straw purchase activity, firearms trafficking and unlicensed dealing,鈥� Lomax said.
Investigators caught more than a dozen violations at gun dealers during inspections in 2022 and 2023, the records show. Multiple gun dealers failed to report when someone bought multiple firearms in one purchase, and failed to conduct background checks.
The inspections they do conduct aren鈥檛 random, Lomax said. Investigators rely on several data points to determine which dealers to inspect. The biggest source of data: when a gun shows up at a crime scene.
鈥淲e鈥檙e targeting licensees for inspection based upon risk factors identified through our intelligence review,鈥� Lomax said.
Investigators traced 6,160 guns linked to crimes in Oregon in 2023, the most recent year of federal data available. Of those, 3,475 鈥� 56% 鈥� came from in-state dealers.
Marks, of Alliance for a Safe Oregon, agreed that the bureau doesn鈥檛 have the staffing to inspect every dealer. But that Oregon should follow the model of other states and create their own inspection process.
As an example, Marks pointed to the state of New Jersey. Of the 4,619 firearms recovered from crime scenes there, 667 鈥� 14% 鈥� came from in-state dealers.