Oregon Sheriff: If Expanded Background Checks Pass, I Won’t Enforce Them

Oregon’s Josephine County Sheriff David Daniel says the background checks contained in Senate Bill 941 are “unenforceable,” and he will not bother enforcing them, even if the legislature passes them.

According to the Herald and News, Daniel said: “I can’t enforce that law, so therefore it won’t be enforced. It doesn’t fit on my scale of priorities.”

Moreover, Daniel explained that the background check bill—should it become law—”does not seem in line with the [Josephine] County Charter.”

The bill is structured in way that treats first offenses as misdemeanors. And while this helps to get the bill passed, it increases the work of law enforcement many times over once it becomes law.

Daniel said, “I have felonies going on daily in Josephine County. That’s my priority.”

On April 5, Breitbart News reported that Oregon’s Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer referred to the expanded background checks as “borderline treasonous” and made clear that he will not enforce them either.

Palmer pointed to the existence of caveats in the law regarding when a check does or does not have to be done and said it poses a nightmare scenario for law enforcement officers who will be straddled with the responsibility of determining when a background should have been done but was not, as well as when a background check is not necessary to begin with.

He said he has “no intention” of enforcing expanded background checks if they become law.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.