UPDATED 01/08

Welcome to CHL Central. If you're planning on obtaining a concealed handgun license in Oregon, the following information should be useful, and troubling.

Some Sheriff's are very accommodating, others treat tax-paying applicants like criminals. (Note, if you have had a CHL revoked, please see this link.)

Please note, O.F.F.'s position is that there is no legitimate basis for a "license" to exercise a God-given, Constitutionally protected right. But, since we're saddled with this law for the time being, we felt this info might be helpful.

The information was collected from interviews we did with every Sheriff's office in the states several years ago. In addition to the contact info listed, we asked some general questions about carry and license issuance. The responses are listed along with the contact info. (Please keep in mind, since we conducted these interviews, some sheriffs have been replaced and may have different policies. Some sheriffs who have NOT been replaced may have different policies. All sheriff's names and contact information were accurate as of December 2006. Please let us know if you find any outdated info.)

It's important to note that all of the information we have posted was accurate as of the time of posting. By "accurate" we mean we've reported it as it was given to us. It does not mean that it is legally accurate. A Sheriff's office may "say" you may not carry on school property. That does not mean it's true.Also, the Sheriff's may design their own CHL applications and, as such, may "redesign" them.

While we do everything we can to provide the most current and accurate information, we cannot guarantee that some information or forms have not changed.

It's interesting to note that many of the people we spoke to got much of the information flat out wrong. Some offices told us you had to live in the county of application for six months. That is not true . Much of what we were told is false.

We were told you couldn't carry in churches or where there were "endangered species." Please remember, no matter what you are told, state law applies everywhere. There are no local restrictions on licensed concealed carry.

Some Sheriffs will not mail you an application, they make you take time off from work to come in and pick it up. Others make it available on their web sites.

It became pretty clear that if you ask 10 different Sheriff's department the same question, you'll get ten different answers. This is why we introduced a bill in the 2003 session to address some of these inconsistencies and outright abuses of the law.

The bill, SB 868, was torpedoed by the Senate Judiciary Chairman, John Minnis.

If you have any information that should be here or any updates, please drop us a line.

If you are looking for a local firearms instructor for a CHL, try our instructors page.

Please note, if you are trying to access info on Multnomah County, make sure you click within the county borders, not on the text that's says "Multnomah" which is actually outside the county borders.