College Republicans holding gun drawing Friday afternoon on OSU campus

The Oregon State University College Republicans’ annual Second Amendment Week has raised some questions from the OSU student body and faculty as well as Corvallis community members.

One of the questions that is often asked by members of the OSU community is, “How are the College Republicans allowed to raffle off firearms?”

For the past 11 years, the College Republicans have put on their annual Second Amendment Week, which is designed to inform OSU students as well as Corvallis community members about topics ranging from gun safety, concealed carry laws and other political issues separate from firearms.

The College Republicans have held events every day this past week from concealed carry classes to movie screenings and debates with the College Democrats. However, tonight’s event is a drawing and the prizes range from a gun cleaning kit to a DEL-TON AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

According to Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 166.436, people looking to acquire a gun from someone other than a gun dealer has to fill out and pass a criminal background check.

Nowhere in the ORS 166.436 is the prohibition of transferring a firearm from a person who is not a gun dealer at a drawing said outright.

Donald Handeland, a senior civil engineering and finance major and president of the College Republicans, stated that the group takes all necessary steps to make sure that the event follows all legal guidelines and regulations.

Handeland stated that the College Republicans work with university entities and groups including the Student Leadership and Involvement office to ensure that the event is done in a legal way, including registering the drawing with the state.

 “A drawing has less-stringent regulations, so everything is considered a donation to the club when we’re selling the tickets and we have all the rules on the website,” Handeland said.

According to Handeland, since the College Republicans are a Voluntary Student Organization and as a result not affiliated with OSU, the university has not approved the event but they did look into the event to make sure there are no legal issues.

While the drawing is on-campus, the firearms that are being offered by the College Republicans are not due to university rules about firearms, Handeland said.

OSU’s policy about guns was adopted in 2012 and written by the Oregon University System (OUS) to ensure that all of Oregon’s Universities had the same policy about firearms on campuses statewide.

OUS policy states that no firearms are allowed on campus at any time by anyone who isn’t an on-duty law enforcement officer who has met the requirements of their campus’ public safety department or a member of a university-recognized military training program such as ROTC.

Nick Russell, the owner of Albany Coins, Jewelry and Guns has been donating guns to various groups and events for over 30 years and has never run into any legal issues with the process.

This year, Russell and Albany Coins, Jewelry and Guns donated a Glock 37 gap .45 caliber handgun.

According to Russell, winners of the drawing must go to the shop to fill out a background check form before they can take the firearm home with them.

“The state does all the background stuff, and once that’s done, they’re given a unique number and the sale is complete,” Russell said.

Depending on how busy the state’s background check system is, the process should take between 10 and 30 minutes, Russell said.

Russell emphasized his experience with events such as Second Amendment Week and donating firearms and made sure to state that people who win the firearms don’t just walk in, claim their firearm, and walk out.

Corvallis Guns, the other sponsor of Second Amendment Week declined to comment.

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