Delaware’s Democratic-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Thursday to approve a bill that would require anyone who wants to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain a permit from the state. .
Thursday’s vote comes just as a federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments over Maryland’s decade-old permit-to-purchase law, which was ruled unconstitutional by a three-judge panel in November. It took place two weeks ago. Only a handful of other states have similar permitting laws, and some are facing legal challenges. North Carolina repealed a permit law that went into effect earlier this year.
Majority Leader Melissa Miner-Brown, the lead House sponsor of the Delaware bill, argued that permit-to-purchase laws would be effective in reducing gun deaths. “States with permitting laws have 25 percent lower gun homicide rates and 50 percent lower gun suicide rates,” she said.
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But in Maryland, the number of annual homicides over the past decade has exceeded the number of homicides in 2013, the year the state’s permit law was passed. (The only exception is 2014.)
House members voted 23-16 in favor of the bill last May, passing the Democratic-controlled Senate on a party-line vote before the Maryland state court ruling. Two House Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the bill, sending it back to the Senate for consideration with some House amendments.
“This bill is the culmination of many years of discussion,” Miner-Brown said Thursday, rejecting Republican suggestions that the legislation was rushed. Still, Democrats passed two last-minute amendments she introduced during Thursday’s floor debate. One would limit the scope of a Republican amendment that lawmakers approved just an hour earlier. The Republican amendment aims to exempt certain people who have already received firearms training from the training requirements, including military personnel, certified firearms instructors and licensed firearms dealers.
The Delaware State Capitol photographed on March 4, 2024 in Dover, Delaware. On March 7, 2024, the Democratic-led Delaware House of Representatives voted to approve a bill that would require people who want to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted. Receive training and obtain government permission. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
House lawmakers passed the bill despite concerns about price and rejected several Republican amendments that Republicans argued would ease the financial burden on both taxpayers and prospective gun buyers. Legislative analysts say the permit system would still cost taxpayers about $3 million in initial implementation costs and about $5 million annually thereafter, even after the proposed training voucher program for low-income workers is eliminated. It is estimated that it will cost.
Democratic Gov. John Carney included more than $2.9 billion in next year’s budget for permit programs and touted it in his State of the State address Tuesday.
Gun control advocates say the permit requirement will reduce the number of murders, suicides and mass shootings in Delaware. They also argue that the permit requirement would make it more difficult to make illegal “straw purchases” of handguns on behalf of people who are prohibited by law from possessing them.
“Criminals avoid purchasing firearms in states with licensing laws,” Miner-Brown said.
Opponents say the bill violates the rights of law-abiding citizens, ignores gun laws, and has no effect on criminals who are responsible for gun violence in the state. There is. Carney acknowledged on Tuesday that “the vast majority of gun violence” in Delaware’s two largest cities, Wilmington and Dover, is committed by “a very small number of people” associated with street gangs.
Critics also argue that the permit process creates a time-consuming and costly violation of people who want to exercise their right to protect themselves with firearms, a right enshrined in the Delaware Constitution. Republican lawmakers warned that the bill would be challenged in court if it became law.
“In my opinion, this would be ruled unconstitutional,” Republican House Attorney Ron Smith testified.
Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings said she believes the bill is unconstitutional. “What we have here are reasonable regulations and requirements,” she said.
The bill would prohibit private sellers as well as licensed gun dealers from transferring handguns to anyone unless they have a “qualified purchaser permit.”
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To obtain a permit, you must complete a firearms training course and be fingerprinted by the state Identification Bureau. SBI will investigate the person within her 30 days and grant permission if the applicant is eligible. The agency may retain information about permit applicants’ names and dates of birth, when they completed their training courses, and the dates on which their permits were issued or denied indefinitely.
The license will be valid for two years. If the SBI director later determines that the person poses a danger to themselves or others by possessing a gun, the restriction could be revoked and any guns purchased with it could be confiscated.
State officials will have up to a year and a half to implement a permit program that exempts active and retired law enforcement officers, as well as officers who already carry concealed permits.
