In a significant move aimed at curbing the proliferation of untraceable firearms, Oregon has set in motion a new law that, starting today, will render ghost guns illegal. The Attorney General’s Office in Oregon has been actively clarifying the stipulations of the law, emphasizing the necessity for its implementation. As reported by KOIN, House Bill 2005 was initially passed in the summer of last year, allowing a grace period for gun owners to seek a serial number for their unserialized firearms.
The stage has now been set for the legal ramifications to take full effect for those who opt to not comply. The law calls for firearms made post-October 22, 1968, to be mandatory marked with a serial number. Failing to abide by this could lead to a $1,000 fine, and repeat offenders face the possibility of seeing even steeper fines and potentially jail time.
Ghost guns, often assembled from kits or 3D-printed parts, lack serial numbers, thereby complicating efforts of law enforcement to trace them. The U.S. Department of Justice recorded 25,785 recoveries of such weapons in 2022 alone. The new regulations in Oregon are meant to close this gap and ensure that firearms can be aptly traced.
However, this legislative move has not been without dissent. Stephen Duvernay, representing the Oregon Firearms Federation and the Firearms Policy Coalition Inc. in federal court, has voiced concerns. He argued the impracticality of obliging around one million owners of such weapons in the state to suddenly start adding serial numbers to their guns or gun components, as per KGW.
Behind the push for House Bill 2005 was State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, who has been advocating for the legislation for years. "Unserialized guns are bad for everyone except criminals who don’t want to get caught," she shared, as per KGW, highlighting the risks that these ghost guns pose to public safety. The new law is Oregon’s attempt to directly address this issue, striving to quell the illicit spread of firearms and to keep citizens safer.
