Pastor Who Won AR-15 Rifle Then Gave it to a Friend Won’t Be Charged Under Oregon Law

By Associated Press

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (AP) — A suburban Portland pastor who won an AR-15 rifle in a raffle and then said he gave it a gun-owning friend for safekeeping will not be prosecuted for transferring the weapon without conducting a background check, authorities said.

Officials were investigating whether Rev. Jeremy Lucas may have violated a recent state law that makes transferring a gun without a background check illegal, even if the arrangement is between private parties and no money changes hands.

But investigators uncovered no evidence that Lucas, 45, actually transferred the gun and never determined the name of the gun-owning friend, Clackamas County District Attorney John S. Foote said in a letter to the Oregon State Police.

The letter was written on Sept. 9 and made public Thursday by state police.

Lucas declined to speak with investigators, state police said in a statement.

“Without the transferee in this case, I don’t think we could ever have a prosecutable case,” Foote wrote.

Lucas, a pastor at Christ Church Episcopal Parish in the affluent suburb of Lake Oswego about 10 miles south of Portland, said in interviews this summer that he spent about $3,000 in discretionary church funds to buy as many rifle raffle tickets as he could …Read the Rest

Source:: The Blaze