rev-jeremy-lucas-courtesy-portlandtribune-com

“A suburban Portland pastor who won an AR-15 rifle in a raffle and then said he gave it to a gun-owning friend for safekeeping will not be prosecuted for transferring the weapon without conducting a background check,” bendbulletin.com reports. “Officials were investigating whether Rev. Jeremy Lucas [above] 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.”

The Po-Po and Co. decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute. Apparently, the fact that Rev. Lucas told The Washington Post that he’d transferred the gun illegally — after spending $3k of church funds to buy enough raffle tickets to win the gun and, thus, to keep the AR-15 “off the streets” — couldn’t be verified by the authorities.

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 Foote said in a letter to the Oregon State Police. . . .

Lucas didn’t 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 . . .

Comments Lucas made to the newspaper about the transfer of the gun were “insufficient to prove that it happened,” Foote wrote.

That’s one hell of a non-investigation, if you ask me. Or anyone else with half a brain. Equally obvious, Washington state prosecutors don’t want to enforce their new “universal background check” law against a gun control advocate for fear that it would highlight the stupidity of the law. Which they’ve now done anyway. And then some.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. I hope everyone is clear this will happen en masse if we get universal background checks and there WILL be prosecutions.

    • What was the true purpose of the Pastors stunt? He bought 1 rifle with God’s money rather than use it for kingdom building work. If he really wanted to get guns off the street, he’d have bought 5 or 6 low end rifles with the $3000- right? All he did was set 1 massive legal president for future transferees to challenge this asinine law.

      PS… Apparently one can refuse to. Cooperate with investigators in missing weapon cases. Thanks for that precedent too.

      • Its called the 1st anmendment (he can make what ever stupid utterance he wants to a news paper), the 4th ammendment (they cant search his house/rectory without probable cause) and the 5th ammendment (he doesnt have to make any statments incriminating himself)…… so no…. saying stupid crap to a news paper about what you decide to do with your personnal firearms isnt enough pc to have the cops rip your life apart…. i actually appreciate that…. if it was me on the other hand they would have no qualms about ripping my life apart and taking my stuff.

        • Oh how cute. You actually think the authorities will give you the same deference if you violate the same firearm ordinance that this anti-2a pastor did.

          If the government passes stupid laws, it either needs to enforce it 100 percent or get rid of it in its entirety. Not carve out exemptions for someone that doesn’t fit the anti-2a narrative.

        • Im pretty sure i said, “they would have no problems ripping my life apart.”

          The word “should” is right there next to “principles”…. “should” doesnt apply to these people so “100%” is a fantasy ….. your fantasies are cute.

  2. Speaking of WA gun laws, as a resident, I would like to inform all my fellow Washingtonians of the threat we face by attorney general Bob Ferguson. I consider him enemy number one now, even more so than Hillary and the gang. He will be introducing legislation in January to ban our beloved AR15s, AK-Ms, etc as well as standard capacity magazines (to which he refers them as high capacity). So, I encourage everyone in WA to vote him out in November as he is up for re-election against a Libertarian candidate. Unfortunately, it is likely he will be re-elected by the sheep of this state in which case we have to continue the fight once he introduces his insidious bill come January. Please stay vigilant and keep up the good fight. I also encourage you to stockpile in the meantime. Please visit Bob Ferguson’s web page and FB page and let him know how much he disgusts you.

  6. Did the Rev-runt use church funds on his quest(a fool’s errand)? Inquiring minds wanna’ know…

    • Yes, from a special discretionary fund that seems to be a vehicle for funding whatever he personally wants to buy with tax deductible donations. You be the judge as to how legal all that is.

  7. So Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote took a page from the James “Hillary’s Homey” Comey playbook.

    This is my shocked face 🙁

  8. But if you were not anti gun they would trow the book, law, not Good Book at you. To make example. But an anti that wants to destroy the gun fits their agenda.

    Priest’s have a lot more to worry about than guns. They should remove the big giant tree trunk from their eyes. And not worry about the splinter in ours. My GUN has Never abused a child. Priests on the other hand.

    Then the Pope is all lib-progressive when it comes to global climate lie and anti capitalism. I say we capitalists should quit giving money to the Catholic Church. They support and vote for pro abortion pol’s.

    Not anti religion. But am anti hypocrites.

    • Find a good non-denominational church. They preach the bible as it is written and you don’t have all the corruption and mess of the Catholic Church

      • And yet, everyday, there is a “youth pastor” sticking his dick in some unwilling boy/girl.

        I’m sure there’s a priest/rabbi/imam who doesn’t ‘do it for the nookie’. I’ve yet to hear of them, but I’m sure they exist. Somewhere. Somehow.

        • Assuming every church has a congregation full of would be child molesters is the same as antis believing gun owners are all unhinged murderers just waiting to unleash mass shootings. Turn off the news that trumpets this bullshit. Don’t be so gullible and naive.

        • Not necessarily the congregation, just the leaders. Nothing naive about knowing that every day at least one ‘youth pastor’ is arrested, nothing uninformed about knowing the real depths of the Catholic Church’s institutional shuffling of thousands of pedo priests, every TV preacher has a sex scandal – if it isn’t already here, it will be soon. From the dancing boys of Afghanistan, to child sex Hasidim in NYC, there’s not a group of religious leaders that isn’t filled with rapists.

          Believe in whatever you want. But the reality is that people in a position of power often take advantage of it, especially when it comes to religion. Been that way for thousands of years. Back when the Vatican was a bit more honest about it’s business, they sold indulgences, and threw spectacular orgies. Just remember, being part of a flock means one thing for sure – the shepard is going to have his way with some of the sheep.

          You might want to put down the kool-aid, and read the paper.

        • Surprisingly the percentage of pedophiles in the Church is less than that of the general pop. Alcoholism is higher, as is depression. There is a higher population of gays. However I have known many fine priests who are passionate about their faith; who question it and the infallibility of the Pope. They exist. You just have to open your eyes.

    • His flock of sheeple no doubt support him and this charade. If they do not there are a lot of other churches in Portland, I’m sure.

      However, the actions taken by the pastor were not really with the intent to get a single MSR off the streets, they were meant to disrupt the concept of using said scary black rifles as raffle prizes by private groups seeking to raise funds. The pastor did not use $3,000 of church funds to buy a dangerous weapon in order to “take it off the streets”, where it would most likely never have appeared at any rate since the winner of the rifle would have had to undergo the same (unconstitutional) background check as the pastor, but to purchase national anti-gun media coverage demonizing scary black rifles.

  10. “Lucas didn’t speak with investigators, state police said in a statement.”

    Is that because Mr. Lucas invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent? Or is it because investigators never tried to speak to Mr. Lucas?

  11. Translation:

    Government only prosecutes political enemies and did not prosecute Mr. Lucas because they determined that he is not a political enemy.

  12. He admitted to a crime, but was not arrested and interrogated.
    Interesting.

    So, if I live in Oregon, and I sell some guns, but I don’t publicly say who I sold them to, then everything’s ok, right?

    • Well, if there is no actual evidence that you sold any firearms and you do not provide a sworn statement indicating that you sold any firearms, then you will not face prosecution because the prosecution will not have a case. (At trial your attorney can claim that you were just being a troll and did not really sell your firearms.)

  13. I’m not religious and I don’t go to Church but if I did go to this guy’s church I’d be pretty ticked that he spent $3K worth of donations to the Church on this.

    Repairing the building? No.

    Feeding and clothing the homeless? No.

    Buying bibles or hymnals? No.

    Buying confections and coffee for after the service? No.

    Spending money to insure he wins a raffle item that I might actually want to win myself and using my money to do it? Yes. Abso-fucking-lutely unacceptable.

    • Based on the (hypothetical) prayers of many good, Christian, gun owners I would not advise this pastor to wander outdoors during any potential thunderstorms. Just sayin’.

    • Given how much I tithe (and I see an investment in my community from it), I can assure you that I’d have an issue with it.

      Where I live, guns aren’t something that would come up in church whether accepted or not, but I’d be looking elsewhere if this was anything like my pastor.

    • I know that raffles are strictly regulated by law and generally limited to legitimate charity or non-profit events, but I do not know the details of state laws on this subject. It would seem to me that if the number of tickets or the dollar amount of funds to be collected were not limited that the organization operating the raffle would want to publicize a mass purchase of tickets such as this in order to encourage others to improve their odds by purchasing extra tickets. This would decrease the odds that the mass purchaser had a guaranteed win and increase the profit of the raffle.

      Better yet, raffle two or more rifles, or a rifle and a pistol. Church busybodies have to run out of funds at some point. Or you could raffle the firearm and a separate item of 1,000 rounds of ammo. I would certainly buy a $10 ticket for a chance at 1,000 rounds of 7.62, and (in most states) no background check.

    • C.S. has a point. This proves that AR-15 gun raffles can be a huge fundraiser — folks’ll buy at least $3,000 worth of tickets to win a $600 gun. Or, well, actually, probably a lot more than that, because the pastor himself bought $3,000 worth, so we don’t know how many other ticket-buyers there were, right?

      • “…folks’ll buy at least $3,000 worth of tickets to win a $600 gun.”

        Yeah, when it’s not their money…

        Do you think homeslice here would have gone out and worked construction to save up $3,000 for this little expenditure? I’d highly doubt that this jerk would have spent $3,000 of his own money on this.

        • Yes, but it works anyway. Turn the logic around — this was a way to get 3,000 of those dollars out of the wrong hands of a gun-control freak. In this one event, it took 3,000 dollars “off the streets” — i.e., took ’em out of the hands of a totalitarian gun grabber.

          With any luck, he’ll have to answer to his congregation for why he spent that money. Or, his congregation will back him and want him to do even more. Either way, 2A advocates win — because the grabbers think they’re “doing something” and “making a point”, but in reality it’s the single least effective way to employ their money. So all that’s happening is that a charity is getting a lot more than they ever thought they would, and the gun-grabbers have less money at their disposal with which they might otherwise done some real damage.

          So yeah, this is effectively a “gun buyback”, but they succeeded in getting dollar bills “off the streets” and “out of the hands of gun-control advocates.” But, unlike in a gun buyback where the valuable items are destroyed and the community just loses, this is different because a kids’ softball league actually got $3,000 worth of value out of it. Seems awful win-win-win, doesn’t it?

        • I’m not arguing the pros and cons.

          I’m saying that this guy is a shill. Were it not for the money of others he never would have pulled this stunt because he’s not the type to put his money where his mouth is. That’s one thing you have to give Bloomberg, at least he has the convictions to spend a boatload of his own money.

        • When you have $1,000,000,000.00 (One billion dollars) $10,000,000.00 (Ten million dollars) is the same to you as $100.00 is to the average Joe (or Jane). And Bloomie has more than just the $1 Billion.

  16. One law for me and one law for thee. I fear Oregon is about to be turned into another California, which really disgusts me because I moved here from New York, and have no desire to make Oregon like New York.

  18. I moved out of Oregon several years ago. The infestation of the crunchy, granola, Prius driving, California migrants reached epidemic levels, so I moved. This is now government as usual in Oregon. When there is a hint of discretion, laws are enforced according to political affiliation.

  21. So, according to the last paragraph, “Equally obvious, Washington state prosecutors …..”, why do Washington state prosecutors have anything to do with what happens in Oregon? Was the transfer from Oregon to someone in WA state? Perhaps the last paragraph should be amended to “Oregon state prosecutors…..”.

  22. I was under the impression this goof ball is an Episcopalian.
    The American cousin of the Church of England, part of the the Anglican Communion.
    If he is, that makes him, a Protestant, a Priest and a catholic with a little “c” with no Roman in it.
    They are free to marry and The Archbishop of Canterbury is the boss. The Pope is not even in the picture.
    It also makes him an anomaly in my experience with Anglican clergy. I have known many gun owing
    Episcopalian Priests, and have never heard anything anti gun from any I have know.
    I would like to hear what his Bishop has to say about his grandstanding bullshit and misuse of church funds??!!

  25. This guy reminds me of the main character in the L. Neil Smith/Aaron Zelman novel ‘The Mitzvah…’ before he wised up and jettisoned his hoplophobia! No spoilers: it’s some of the best pro-2A fiction out there!

    I hope this priest has a similar epiphany!

  26. This pisses me off. Did he complete the 4473 to receive it? Can he produce it when requested? Did he report it stolen? If he had the rifle in his possession, no longer possesses it, and does not claim robbery, then he willingly gave it to someone. If that someone was a private individual, and he didn’t complete the LEGALLY REQUIRED background check, then he broke the law. BTW, he OPENLY ADMITTED to doing just that! It’s not lack of evidence, it’s the lack of prosecution that has kept him out of jail. No one really cares what I think, I just had to vent this somewhere.

  28. The floating pop-up ads from Brownell’s about pmags are really getting annoying. Sponsoring articles not raising enough revenue so we’re going to cover the articles with ads now?

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