Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days for the pickup list and wallet card; months 4 to 12 for the storage list after legal review
One verified answer: where to get a lock tonight, and who will hold my guns
Replace the single advocacy web page with one plain page and a wallet card, in English and Spanish, listing every free lock pickup point we can verify by phone and every willing temporary storage option in the three counties, organized by legal path, with no advocacy branding and two named gun-owner keepers re-verifying by phone every six months.
What Central Oregon lacks is not a tool but a verified answer to a simple question: where can I get a lock tonight, and who will hold my guns for a few weeks? The only public list we found is a volunteer advocacy page naming Bend sites, and clinics with no city given; the sheriff limits cable locks to one per person at the main office, with none at the Sisters, La Pine or Terrebonne substations; and we found nothing documented for Redmond, Prineville or Madras. Bend Police give free locks with no questions asked and will hold a firearm for someone in crisis, and few people know it.
The technology evidence points away from building anything new, and the storage-map experience elsewhere is a warning: Colorado’s map relies on spring 2024 data and warns it may be out of date; builders of similar maps in other states have reported trust, legal questions, funding and maintenance as their main problems; and Oregon dealers reportedly hold guns quietly while declining to be listed over liability and cost.
A list a hunter trusts must be short, current and free of advocacy branding, and it must separate options honestly. Oregon law already lets a listed relative hold a firearm without a dealer and lets anyone hold one to prevent imminent harm; federal rules require a licensed dealer to run a background check before handing a firearm to any unlicensed person, which is why a dealer hold may mean a check on return. The card would lead with sheriff substations, police lobbies and ranges, put clinics after, say what the law does not settle, and carry a last-verified date on every line.
Why we think it works
- The Central Oregon Gun Safety Advocates free lock page lists Bend Police, the sheriff's main office in Bend, the Bend-La Pine Schools Education Center, plus Central Oregon Pediatric Associates (COPA) and Mosaic Community Health clinics with no city given; the sheriff provides cable locks only, one per person, with none at the Sisters, La Pine or Terrebonne substations. (Central Oregon Gun Safety Advocates, Free Gun Locks in Central Oregon, strong evidence)
- Bend Police give free locks with no questions asked and will store firearms for people in crisis; a report from S.A.F.E., the Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance's free lockbox program, found that 77.8 percent of people would not want to store their guns outside the home even with family or friends. (Bend Bulletin, Central Oregon organization works to increase firearm safety, moderate evidence)
- ORS 166.435 allows transfers to listed relatives and temporary transfers to prevent imminent death or serious injury without a dealer background check. (ORS 166.435 Firearm transfers by unlicensed persons (oregon.public.law), strong evidence)
- Under 27 CFR 478.102 a licensed dealer must complete a NICS background check before selling, delivering or transferring a firearm to any unlicensed person, with exceptions only for certain state permits issued within five years, NFA approved transfers, and a Director's impracticability certification; the regulation itself does not mention safekeeping or the return of stored firearms. (27 CFR 478.102 Sales or deliveries of firearms on and after November 30, 1998 (Cornell..., strong evidence)
- Colorado's out-of-home storage map relies on spring 2024 data and warns it may be out of date. (Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition Gun Storage Map, strong evidence)
What we would do
- An Oregon Hunters Association chapter member or a deputy, not a stranger from a post-tragedy nonprofit, phones every police department, sheriff substation, clinic, school program contact, range and licensed dealer in the three counties; record what each actually stocks and whether it will hold a firearm; publish only verified entries with a last-verified date.
- Lead the card with sheriff substations, police lobbies and ranges, then the secure storage program contact at the High Desert Education Service District (the regional agency that supports all six school districts), not individual schools, since no firearm ever comes to a school, then clinics; include SafeOregon and 988 and nothing else; take the existing advocacy page's data with private thanks and keep its logo off.
- Organize storage options by legal path: relatives and emergency holders under Oregon's family and emergency transfer rules (ORS 166.435) first; sheriff and police holds second; dealers last, with the federal dealer background check requirement, and what it is read to mean for a return, in the first line of that section.
- Get written legal advice through the sponsor's counsel on ORS 166.435 holds and the dealer return rules before listing any dealer; where the law is unclear, the card says so and says call the sheriff's office; in any hold agreement the owner names the return date and the holder's only out is to call the sheriff if there is imminent danger.
- Name two keepers, one of them east or north of Bend, with a published six-month re-verification calendar; remove anything unconfirmed; ask 211info to carry the entries and the county suicide prevention program to hold the master list so a volunteer's departure does not end the list.
- Link Lock to Live unmodified as a free bilingual decision aid; link to the ESD's own contact for full-size safe requests rather than collecting any names; pickup everywhere is no questions asked.
- Ask the Oregon Firearm Safety Coalition and the hunters association chapters to co-brand; distribute the wallet card at every lock table, hunter education class, gun shop and sheriff's office that agrees to carry it, and to adults only through the storage letters districts already send home.
How we would know it is working
- Verified entries by town, and the number of towns with at least one verified lock pickup point, reported (goal: all seven)
- Share of entries re-verified within six months (goal 100 percent)
- Storage providers asked, and the number willing to be listed, by legal path
- Cards distributed and page views, with Spanish counted separately
- Zero advocacy logos on the card (council audit)
What could get in the way
- A stale entry sends a family to a locked door during a bad night, and the group never gets a second chance.
- Two named keepers, a last-verified date on every line, removal of anything unconfirmed, and the entries offered to 211info and the county to carry so the list outlives any volunteer.
- If the current list owner's advocacy logo is on the wallet card, Prineville throws the card away.
- Republish the verified data on neutral paper under hunters association chapter names, with the sheriffs' offices invited to add theirs.
- Listing dealer holds without saying a background check may happen on return would burn the first person who learns it at the counter, and dealers reportedly decline to be listed; a hold agreement that lets a holder refuse to return guns is a warning sign.
- Legal paths in order with the dealer return question in bold; legal advice before any dealer is listed; the owner names the return date in the agreement.
- A request form routed to a school district means a name and address in a district system tied to owning guns and wanting a safe.
- No form; link to the ESD's own contact; pickup is no questions asked, as Bend Police already do.
Who we would work with: Police departments and sheriffs in all three counties, Oregon Hunters Association chapters and Redmond Rod and Gun Club, Oregon Firearm Safety Coalition, Central Oregon Gun Safety Advocates (data source only), High Desert Education Service District (the ESD) secure storage program, Mosaic Community Health and Central Oregon Pediatric Associates (COPA) clinics, 211info, Deschutes County Suicide Prevention Program (asked to hold the master list), Latino Community Association (Spanish card), Sponsor's counsel