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A reverend from Lake Oswego who won an AR-15 in a raffle with plans to destroy it could face misdemeanor charges for transferring the weapon illegally because he didn't perform a background check before he gave it to one of his parishioners to hold for safe keeping.

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Jeremy Lucas, the Lake Oswego reverend who made national news last week when he announced that he would destroy an AR-15 he won in a raffle, may have run afoul of the law when he gave the gun to a parishioner for safe keeping without performing a background check.

Whether or not Lucas will be prosecuted remains to be seen, according to a spokesman for the Oregon State Police, who are looking into the case.

It started about two weeks ago when Lucas was perusing social media and happened upon a Willamette Week story on a girls softball league that was holding a raffle to sponsor the team's travel to a tournament in California. The grand prize: an AR-15.

Lucas told the Oregonian/OregonLive that he was "disturbed" by the thought of a kids' sports league raffling off a rifle, but that he wanted to support the team's fundraising effort so, using $3,000 of discretionary funds from the church, he bought as many raffle tickets as he could in the hopes of winning the rifle, which he did.

The reverend was well aware the thousands he spent on raffle tickets could have purchased multiple similar weapons. He said he not only wanted to get the rifle off the street, but also wanted to make sure he funded the girls' trip.

The brouhaha started when Lucas announced his plans to destroy the rifle. After garnering plenty of local press, the Washington Post picked up the story and Lucas told the paper he had picked up the rifle from a gun store, but had left the rifle at the home of a "responsible gun owner" who offered to keep the weapon locked in a gun safe.

The only problem? As of May 11, 2015, any transfer of a firearm, even between private parties when no money changes hands, requires a full background check.

Capt. Bill Fugate, a spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said Lake Oswego police had asked them to look into the case, but the investigation was still in its infancy stages. The state police have multiple troopers who investigate weapons transfers, but Fugate had only become aware of the case Monday morning.

If Lucas were convicted of an unlawful transfer of a weapon, a misdemeanor, he could face a maximum fine of $6,250 and up to a year in jail, Fugate said.

Lucas did not immediately return calls for comment Monday, but he told the Portland Tribune that he would cooperate fully with any investigation and was pleased with the ongoing dialog his move had prompted around gun control laws.

"Anything that furthers the conversation about our gun laws in the state of Oregon, I'm happy that that would happen," he said.

Lucas doesn't appear to have any regrets on procuring the rifle, either. On Saturday, he posted a link to a story on the church's Facebook page describing a shooting in Seattle, in which three people were killed with an AR-15.

"If anyone thinks I'm sorry about spending $3000 to take an AR-15 off the streets and out of our society, think again," he wrote in the caption.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048