Oregon lawmakers quietly pushed through a stripped-down gun bill Friday that mostly does one thing: kick the can down the road on Measure 114.
House Bill 4145 originally contained several changes to the controversial gun control measure, but after a late rewrite, lawmakers gutted most of it. What’s left simply delays Measure 114’s effective date from March 15 of this year to Jan. 1, 2028.
The move passed both chambers with little resistance, though not everyone was thrilled about it.
Measure 114 has been stuck in legal limbo since Oregon voters narrowly approved it back in 2022. The law would require a permit to purchase a firearm, mandate the completion of a background check before a gun can be transferred, and restrict magazine capacity to 10 rounds.
Supporters say the rules are common-sense safety measures. Critics, including many gun owners across Oregon, argue the law places new hurdles on people who are already following the rules while doing little to stop criminals who don’t.
For now, the fate of the measure still rests with the Oregon Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in the coming months on whether the law violates the state constitution’s right-to-bear-arms protections.
The changes to HB 4145 came through what lawmakers call a “gut and stuff” amendment. The Senate Rules Committee tossed out the House’s original version of the bill Wednesday morning and replaced it with the much simpler delay.
The timing raised a few eyebrows around the Capitol. The sudden rewrite happened shortly after Republicans provided Democrats with the quorum they needed to pass another controversial measure that moves a transportation tax vote from November to May. While no one officially confirmed a deal, the sequence of events didn’t go unnoticed.
The original House version of the bill had proposed increasing the cost of gun permits from $65 to $150 and extending the time authorities would have to process permit applications from 30 days to 60 days. Those changes were scrapped in the final version.
The Senate unanimously passed the revised bill Thursday. The House followed with a 51-2 vote Friday, with Democratic Reps. Dacia Grayber of Portland and Jules Walters of West Linn voting against it.
Rep. Jason Kropf, a Democrat from Bend and one of the bill’s original sponsors, acknowledged the watered-down outcome but said the issue isn’t going away.
“I’m disappointed to be here with this concurrence,” Kropf said. “We’ve been working on this legislation since 2023. I will say to the folks who have put a lot of effort into this bill that I continue to be undeterred in this work and I’ll be bringing this back in 2027.”
Republicans, meanwhile, welcomed the scaled-back version of the bill, especially the removal of higher permit fees and longer waiting periods.
“I never bought the line that the original House Bill 4145 was about advancing the will of the people,” said Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, who is running for governor. “For years, this Legislature has chipped away at the right to bear arms for law-abiding citizens. This legislation is a win in an ongoing battle to defend the constitutional rights of Oregonians.”
Two Republican representatives also pointed to a recent federal court ruling in Washington, D.C., where a judge found that banning magazines holding more than 10 rounds was unconstitutional. They suggested the decision could create additional challenges for Measure 114 in court.
Gun control advocates, however, say the delay simply gives the state more time to prepare.
Lisa Bosotina, a volunteer with the Oregon chapter of Moms Demand Action, said pushing the date to 2028 allows Oregon to finish building the permit-to-purchase system required under the law.
Not everyone who backed Measure 114 sees the delay as harmless.
Lift Every Voice Oregon, the interfaith coalition that helped lead the ballot campaign, argued the Legislature is effectively trying to reopen a debate voters already settled.
“That time has ended — it is now the law,” the group said in a statement after the vote. “The specific provisions of Measure 114 were selected because they have proven to reduce homicides and suicides by guns in other states that have passed them.”
For now, though, the entire conversation may be premature. Until the Oregon Supreme Court rules, Measure 114 remains stalled — meaning the state’s most sweeping gun control proposal in decades is still stuck somewhere between the ballot box and the courtroom.
And if the court does allow it to move forward, lawmakers have already made one thing clear: the fight over how it should actually work is far from over.
