The FBI has agreed to offer a grace period that would allow Oregon to access the bureau’s national criminal history data to complete required fingerprint-based background checks if the state’s stalled gun control Measure 114 should take effect.

SALEM — The FBI has agreed to offer a grace period that would allow Oregon to access the bureau’s national criminal history data to complete required fingerprint-based background checks if the state’s stalled gun control Measure 114 should take effect.

The FBI’s new position comes as Oregon awaits a ruling by Harney County Circuit Judge Robert S. Raschio on whether the voter-approved measure is constitutional under state law.

The state submitted the FBI’s decision to Raschio last week.

Measure 114 calls for a permit to buy a gun and bans the sale, transfer and manufacture of magazines holding more than 10 rounds. It also requires a completed criminal background check of a prospective gun owner before any sale or transfer of a gun.

Voters last November approved the measure with 50.7% of the vote. Raschio put the measure on hold before it was set to take effect last December.

Gun rights advocates challenging the measure have argued, in part, that the measure is unconstitutional because the state lacked FBI authorization to access the national database to conduct the background checks required before granting someone a permit to buy a gun.

The state Attorney General’s Office worked out a temporary fix with the FBI in the last several months, according to court records.

The FBI said its grace period will be contingent on Oregon’s assurance that it won’t let anyone other than a police chief, a county sheriff or one of their subordinate officers to act as a “permit agent” who will have access to federal criminal history information.

The measure’s current language allows a chief or sheriff to select a “designee” to serve as a permit agent. The FBI was concerned that a third party could access the information, according to Joshua K. Handell, senior counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice’s office of the deputy attorney general.

Before permitting could work, the FBI had to authorize state police to submit fingerprints through the FBI’s Next Generation Identification database, a biometric system that allows for a search of identity record. The state police will then share the national criminal history information only to a sworn law enforcement officer, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Oregon State Police “understands the FBI’s position,” which is consistent with state police regulations, wrote Michael Kron, special counsel for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, in court records.

It’s unclear how long the FBI’s grace period will last. It’s likely to extend until a final review by the U.S. Department of Justice, said Kron, who has been in contact with the federal Justice Department.

The FBI did alert the state that its restriction that a permit agent’s “designee” be a law enforcement officer must be adopted into state law.

In any case, the FBI background check matter isn’t likely to affect Raschio’s ruling. The judge said on the eve of trial earlier this year that he intended to restrict his constitutional analysis to the text of the gun control measure, not on how the regulations will be put into place.

Two Harney County gun owners who filed the state court challenge have argued that Measure 114 infringes on the right of Oregonians to bear arms for self-defense and has no public safety benefit.

The state’s lawyers countered that the measure provides reasonable regulations by restricting people who may be a danger to themselves or others from buying guns and that limiting the number of rounds in a gun magazine will reduce homicides and mass shootings.

Earlier this year, a lawyer for the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association issued an advisory to sheriffs, telling them if the gun control measure was allowed to take effect, they should deny applications for gun permits unless state police could report the person had successfully passed the required FBI background check.