A proposal to require anyone in Delaware wanting to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain permission from the state has cleared its first legislative hurdle.
The bill includes exemptions for active and retired law enforcement officers, and for those who already have concealed carry permits. It also provides for vouchers covering the full cost of a firearms training course for individuals with household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline.
Supporters of the permitting proposal argue that it would help reduce the number of gun homicides and suicides in Delaware and make it more difficult for people to make illegal "straw purchases" of handguns on behalf of those prohibited by law from possessing them.Opponents argue that the bill would impose costly and unnecessary burdens on law-abiding citizens and, like other gun-control measures, be ignored by the criminals responsible for Delaware’s gun violence problem. "Many of you argue that Senate Bill 2 is common sense gun control, and I beg to differ," said Corrina Slater. "Common sense gun control would be holding criminals responsible for their gun crimes." "But this isn’t about commons sense." Slater said. "This is about your need to control law abiding citizens’ ability to access their Second Amendment right." Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings, an advocate for stricter gun laws who spoke in favor of the bill, said it will not inhibit law-abiding citizens from acquiring handguns. But Jennings said it would make it significantly more difficult to do so for people who should not have them. Critics took state officials to task for not enforcing Delaware's existing gun laws, claiming that prosecutors too often reduce or dismiss firearm charges. According to the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System, or DELJIS, law enforcement officials made more than 8.900 arrests from January 2010 through December 2020 for possession of a firearm by a person prohibited — an average of more than two arrests a day for more than a decade. Less than 25% of those arrests, roughly 2,200, resulted in convictions, according to agency data. During that same period, there were more than 100 arrests for straw purchases of firearms, but only 12 convictions, according to DELJIS.
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