Delaware is moving up in the nation’s gun safety rankings.
Delaware jumped two spots in Everytown for Gun Safety’s Gun Law Rankings for 2023, from 13 to 11.
Attorney General Kathy Jennings calls gun violence a complex issue, but believes there are legislative avenues to combat it, which Delaware is making progress on.
"We focused like a laser beam on reducing gun violence," Jennings says. "We partnered with the city of Wilmington on a program called GunStat. We partnered with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms too for the first time ever to go after large numbers of gun traffickers in our state. And each and every day we achieve an 85% conviction rate of gun crimes."
Last session, the General Assembly passed an assault weapons ban, raised the age to buy guns to 21 from 18, and focused higher presumptive bail on violent offenders. But Jennings says there is other important legislation to pass.
“What we know is the states that have a permit to purchase law, gun violence goes down by about 26%, gun suicides go down by I believe 15%, and homicides go down by 40%," she says. "That bill alone will have an immediate impact.”
She adds a permit to purchase law can drive down illegal gun trafficking by up to 60% – and she expects a bill like SB3 from last session to pass this year.
“We’re going to fight like hell to make sure it passes," Jennings says. "And I can tell you that our friends who are gun advocates, Moms Demand Action, Everytown, and all of the major gun safety organizations will be fighting alongside us.”
Neighboring states like Maryland and New Jersey have some form of a permit to purchase law, and sit at number 8 and 4 respectively in the rankings.
Other states across the nation plummeted in the rankings like Georgia, Alabama, Ohio and Indiana, that all passed permit-less carry.
