HB 3076 A : State Licensing for Arms Dealers
Position: Support Status: House
Arms dealers in Oregon are required to have a federal license to be "in the business" of selling firearms. HB 3076-2 requires federally licensed firearms dealers operating in Oregon to also be licensed by the state of Oregon. Security, accountability, and reporting requirements are required.
Update
6-20 (H) HB 3076A successfully passes out of the Ways and Means Committee
6-20 (H) Work Session scheduled in Ways and Means Committee at 4:00 PM
6-18 (H) Both -A3 and -A4 amendments were adopted and the bill was passed out of the subcommittee to the full Ways and Means Committee
6-18 (H) Work Session scheduled 8:30 AM
6-12 (H) Assigned to Subcommittee On Capital Construction.
4-15 (H) Recommendation: Do pass with amendments, be printed A-Engrossed, and be referred to Ways and Means by prior reference.
4-8 (H) Work Session: Do pass with amendments and be referred to Ways and Means by prior reference. (Printed A-Eng.)
4-7 (H) Work Session scheduled.
This bill had work sessions scheduled previously but all were carried forward to April 7.
3-20 (H) Public Hearing held
1-13 (H) First reading.
1-17 (H) Referred to Judiciary with subsequent referral to Ways and Means.
Chief Sponsors: Representative Kropf, Grayber, Senator Reynolds, Representative McDonald, Senator Broadman
Regular Sponsors: Representative Gamba
HB 3076A successfully passed out of the Ways and Means Committee! Your calls and emails worked!
The Joint Ways and Means Capital Construction Subcommittee adopted two amendments to HB 3076A. The -A3 amendment provides a start date of July 1, 2027 for Class 1 dealers with more than 251 firearm sales annually and July 1, 2028 for all Class 1 firearms dealers. The -A4 amendment provides funding. Ceasefire Oregon supports a fee program that places the financial burden of licensing on the arms dealers and not Oregon taxpayers, as is the case in many other businesses.
Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH, researcher and professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, discusses Oregon’s need for state licensing of arms dealers in a June 17 article published in the Oregon Capital Chronicle:
Licensed gun dealers (Federal Firearm Licensees or FFLs) are regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But the bureau has been underfunded for decades and cannot meet its mandate to promote gun dealers’ compliance with federal firearm laws.
The bureau has had a policy goal of inspecting every gun dealer at least once every three years. In reality, it missed nearly half of its inspection targets between 2018 and 2020 during the first Trump administration. Less than 0.5% of gun dealers with documented law violations had their licenses revoked during Trump’s first administration.
HB 3076 has a work session (committee vote) scheduled for June 18 at 8:30 AM. To watch the work session, click on this link and look for the “Meetings” column on the right side of the page. Click the camera icon next to 6/18/2025 8:30 AM.
Read about the constitutionality of HB 3076A in our blog post.
The -2 amendment was posted and passed out of committee on a party-line vote. The bill is now in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Major highlights of HB 3076-2 include requiring:
- all firearms and ammunition at an arms dealers are secured
- all employees receive training
- implement security measures to prevent unauthorized entry
- surveillance video throughout the store
- alarm systems
- general liability insurance of at least $1 million
suicide prevention information posted(requirement eliminated in the -2 amendment), and- monthly inventory reporting.
- More detailed information is listed in the amendment.
Who is a firearms dealer? The new amendment defines a firearms dealer as:
- a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL) pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 923
- and who is engaged in the wholesale or retail business of selling firearms, frames, receivers or unfinished frames or receivers;
- and sells more than ten firearms, frames, receivers or unfinished frames or receivers in a 12 month period.
Will the state perform on-site inspections at arms dealers? Yes.
- On-site inspections will be conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) at least every three years. (The -1 amendment required inspections annually.)
- Reasonable periodic unannounced inspections by the DOJ of a licensee’s place of business, during the dealer’s regular business hours, to ensure that the licensee is complying with the state license requirements
What are the new security measures required?
- All firearms must be locked at all times unless being shown by an employee
- All ammunition must be inaccessible to the public
- Inventory keeping and reporting to DOJ (to track stolen firearms and ammunition)
- Specifications for securing buildings, doors and windows of the licensee’s place of business to prevent unauthorized entry.
Why does Oregon need to license gun dealers if they already have federal licenses?
The Trump Administration is expected to severely weaken an already anemic Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, commonly known as the ATF.
Mark Jones, a former ATF agent who retired in 2011, spoke to The Trace in a February 28, 2025 article about the appointment of Kash Patel as the FBI director and the head of the ATF: “It’s pretty demoralizing,” said Mark Jones, “This guy doesn’t like the ATF and doesn’t believe in firearms regulation. I just see him coming in with a wrecking ball.”
As it is, federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) are subject to very little scrutiny even though nearly all firearms in the United States are originally sold by licensed gun dealers. The lack of oversight, due to inadequate funding and gun lobby-backed legislation, too often allows corrupt or irresponsible gun dealers to endanger public safety without any accountability or consequences. (Giffords)
Do other states require FFLs to be licensed by a state?
Yes. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws regulating firearms dealers, with additional states requiring dealers to conduct background checks, retain records of sales, or report sales to law enforcement. State licensing of arms dealer is well within the scope of the US Constitution and the Second Amendment.
What is the research on state licensing?
Research is clear that changes to gun dealer practices can help prevent gun violence and gun crime. For example, when one Milwaukee dealer voluntarily changed their sales practices—namely by halting the sales of certain low-quality, inexpensive handguns—there was a subsequent decrease in the use of such weapons across the city of Milwaukee, a 73% decrease in crime guns recently sold by this dealer in the city, and a 44% decrease in the flow of newly trafficked guns recovered in the city. (National Library of Medicine)
What other businesses are licensed in Oregon?
Most Oregonians have been to a pharmacy within the past few years. Pharmacies dispense drugs that can ease pain and fight disease. But drugs can also be abused be people who become addicted to medications and drugs can be sold illegally by drug traffickers.
To reduce the amount of drugs being abused or entering the illegal market, Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Oregon Board of Pharmacy regulate pharmacies and pharmacists and protect public health and safety “by ensuring high standards in the practice of pharmacy and through effective regulation of the manufacture and distribution of drugs.”
Because of the FDA, DEA, and OBP, people who enter pharmacies in Oregon know they will be protected by — and subject to — high levels of security including video surveillance, drugs locked in safes, drugs locked behind counters, requirements for prescriptions for dangerous drugs, and electronic databases to help pharmacists control and regulate their inventory of drugs to reduce theft or loss.
Arms dealers, however, are not subject to the security and accountability we require of pharmacies. That is not acceptable.
Without the ATF, who’s minding the store?
Oregon is home to 1,970 federally licensed firearms dealers. To put that in perspective, Oregon is home to:
HB 3076 ensures that arms dealers are following reasonable security measures just as other businesses do.