Who is most likely to legally carry a concealed handgun in Oregon?

Peter Kuzemchak wants to get a concealed carry permit for his handgun.

A Portland resident who works as an unarmed security guard downtown, the 45-year-old last summer bought a Smith & Wesson 9 mm gun for home defense.

Now, he’d like to be able to carry it on trips to the wilderness.

“When you go out in the middle of nowhere you run more risk of running into, you know, wildlife that may not be so pleasant,” he said.

Once he takes a refresher course on gun safety and submits his official application to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Kuzemchak expects to become one of more than 311,000 people to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Oregon, up from about 185,000 active permits in 2013.

The upswing in concealed carry permits statewide has been decades in the making, a result of several factors that include a long-ago political compromise in Salem, more advertising to a wider audience and shifts in attitudes about the role of guns in self defense.

In Portland’s tri-counties — Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas — the growth has followed a similar path, rising nearly 70% since 2013 to nearly 97,000 active permits this year.

Among the three counties, Multnomah County has seen the biggest increase compared to 2013, with nearly 15,000 more permits. And in Clackamas County, officials have now issued permits equal to about 10% of the county’s 21-and-older population, the highest rate in the metro area.

Permit-holders in Oregon skew heavily male. Statewide, 71% of permits, or nearly 221,000, are held by men. By comparison, women hold a little over 90,000 permits.

Reasons for the gender disparity vary among experts, but traditional stereotypes are at play.

“Men in our culture, in our society, are expected to protect and there’s such a connection between protecting and carrying firearms, culturally,” said Dr. Kathleen Carlson, a professor of public health at Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University.

While the number of permits is relatively evenly distributed among women by age, the numbers skew older among men. Men 66 to 75 have the most total permits, at nearly 44,000, of any age range, while those 76 and older received nearly 25,000 permits.

Put another way: officials have issued permits equal to about one in five men 66 and older statewide – by far the highest rate among any age range or gender.

Meanwhile, gun sales in Oregon also appear to be on the uptick. Background checks for gun purchases, often used as a proxy for sales, reached a record high in 2020 at about 418,000, and state police officials conducted about 338,000 last year, far greater than the three previous years from 2017 through 2019.

Michelle Barnhart, an Oregon State University marketing professor, said one factor to explain the overall rise is the shift in attitudes and gun advertising. Prior to the 1980s, Barnhart said traditional gun culture was centered around recreation, particularly hunting and target shooting.

But in the next 20 to 25 years, gun lobbyists put more focus on gun rights, she said, and consumer advertising moved toward the idea of handguns as self defense.

Kevin Starrett, the executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation, pointed elsewhere. He cast blame on “liberal policies” that he said put people in danger and prompted many to get concealed carry permits.

Oregon owes this expansion to 1989 legislation, forged by then-House Speaker Vera Katz, D-Portland, who won 15-day waiting periods for handgun purchases and restrictions on who could legally buy guns by loosening the rules around concealed carry permits.

Before House Bill 3470, applicants had to persuade their local sheriff they had a compelling need for one. The new law flipped the script, requiring sheriffs to issue permits if a person paid a fee and met a list of requirements unless the sheriff could show the person didn’t qualify.

The Oregon law followed a 1989 elementary-school shooting in Stockton, California, where a gunman killed five children and wounded 30 with an AK-47 he bought in Sandy, Oregon.

At the time, the number of people with permits to carry concealed handguns in Multnomah County was just 14.

In 1993, Katz, then Portland’s mayor, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the changes were reasonable. By then the number of concealed permits had climbed to 37,000 statewide. “I don’t think the concealed weapons permit is a problem,” she said. “My concern is the people getting guns illegally.”

But the waiting period – considered one of the longest in the country at the time – lapsed in 1995 in favor of instant background checks. Oregon today does not have any waiting periods for gun purchases.

County sheriffs must deny concealed carry permits for a list or reasons, including if someone has a warrant for their arrest, if they’re on any pre-trial release, are a felon or registered sex offender or have been convicted of stalking.

Sheriffs also have some discretion to deny a permit, if they believe a person could endanger themselves or others.

Out-of-state concealed carry permits are not recognized in Oregon. But state law allows residents in neighboring states -- Washington, Idaho, Nevada or California -- to obtain an Oregon concealed carry permit. But residents in neighboring states face more stringent criteria before a sheriff issues a permit.

Oregon is also an open carry state, meaning a person can openly carry a rifle, but a person needs a permit for a concealed handgun. In some public places, such as Portland Public Schools buildings, the Portland International Airport terminal or the Capitol, all guns are banned, including concealed carry weapons owing to Senate Bill 554.

Permit holders found armed in those areas can be charged with a misdemeanor.

Former Democratic state Sen. Ginny Burdick, one of the sponsors of the law, said she called for those restrictions because she believes guns don’t belong in those public spaces.

“Guns don’t belong in schools. They don’t belong in the Capitol,” Burdick said. “They certainly don’t belong at the airport.”

Oregonians seeking a permit must be at least 21 and a resident of the county they’re applying in. They also must have proof they completed a gun safety course and have a clean criminal record. Permits, which initially cost $115, are valid for four years.

Ralph Mowatt, 82, has taught concealed carry classes for Keith’s Sporting Goods in Gresham for the past five years. He said around 80% of the people who attend his in-person classes, which cost $40, want a permit for personal protection.

Mowatt emphasizes the importance of teaching people proper gun safety, noting he can decide not to certify someone based on how they respond to his trainings.

In the past three years, he said, business has been booming. Enrollment in his classes has doubled.

--Zaeem Shaikh; mshaikh@oregonian.com; 503-221-8111; @zaeemshake