SALEM -- A bill that would limit default gun sales when background checks take longer than expected is "unlikely" to emerge from a divided, work-choked Senate -- meaning Oregon lawmakers could end this year's session without passing any gun-related legislation.

House Bill 4147 remains on hold in the Senate's rules committee after barely clearing the House on a 31-28 vote Monday. That vote had initially been set for Friday but had to wait because support among Democrats, particularly among wary moderates, was so soft.

"It's unlikely this late in the session," said Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, who also made clear, given her traditional support for gun measures: "I hate to see any gun bill not make it."

The bill would make Oregon gun-buyers wait a few days longer to obtain a firearm if their background checks encounter complications. Right now, sellers can proceed -- at their discretion -- if a check takes longer than three days. That's in line with federal law.

HB 4147 initially sought to make buyers wait as long as it took for a background to come back. To stay alive in the House, it was eventually amended to make buyers wait 10 days.

The bill emerged after a mass shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church that left nine people dead. The suspected gunman, federal authorities found, was allowed to purchase his weapon even though his background check slipped past the three-day window.

Clerical errors kept an inexperienced investigator from learning, within the waiting period, that the suspected gunman had disqualifying drug offenses. Critics of HB 4147, in a tense House debate, argued that no amount of extra time would have unearthed that mistake.

House Democrats acknowledge that a so-called "Charleston loophole" would not be closed. But they've argued that HB 4147 will still keep more guns away from people barred from having them -- including domestic violence abusers and other potential mass shooters.

And yet with tensions flaring in the Senate -- leading to an awkward Republican no-show Wednesday, forcing leaders to abandon a nighttime floor session -- some would-be supporters privately see HB 4147 as too tepid to justify fighting things out in their chamber.

Data from the state police found delays in just 8,467 -- or 3.2 percent -- of the 262,838 background checks conducted last year. Most went through within minutes. Buyers whose checks faced delays, however, were five times more likely to be denied.

Of more than 600 denials in the last four months of 2015, 52 involved a fugitive from justice and 205 were from would-be buyers with felony convictions. Dozens of other denied buyers had convictions for assault or menacing.

The bill's sponsor, House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, has promised more money to help the Oregon State Police better process background checks as well as work through a backlog of rape kits. The Legislature's budget chairs and leaders have backed up that promise.

-- Denis C. Theriault

503-221-8430; @TheriaultPDX