Delaware's state Senate voted on Tuesday to restrict ownership of high-capacity magazines in the First State, moving forward legislation that stalled in the state house last year.
State Senate President Pro Tem David Sokola’s bill would prohibit possession of magazines carrying more than 17 rounds, with exceptions for law enforcement officers, military personnel, people with concealed carry permits and several other groups. Sokola says the ban is intended to scale back the risk of high-fatality mass shootings.
“The ten deadliest mass shootings in the last ten years all involved large-capacity magazines," he said. "Mass shooters who use large-capacity magazines will kill twice as many people as those who do not, and the reason is obvious: the more bullets you can fire, the more death and injuries you can cause.”
Current owners not exempted from the ban would be required to turn in their high-capacity magazines. The bill outlines a buy-back program — offering $10 for each magazine — and anyone caught possessing an illegal magazine after June 30 of this year would face a misdemeanor on their first offense and a felony for subsequent violations.
The proposal isn't new to the state legislature: earlier attempts to ban high-capacity magazines failed, and though a version of Sokola's bill passed in the Senate last year, a series of amendments added by House lawmakers stalled its progress.
Sokola’s bill also prohibits manufacturing and sale of high-capacity magazines. But State Sen. Brian Pettyjohn proposed an amendment striking that prohibition, citing a Georgetown-based company with 90 employees that recently received contracts to manufacture high-capacity magazines; according to Pettyjohn, the company's clients include law enforcement and the Ukrainian military. Pettyjohn argues the ban on manufacturing and sales to civilians in other states could cost jobs in his district and impose Delaware’s laws elsewhere.
“I’m asking to keep the jobs," he said, "and just because we think that we should not be selling them in Delaware to others that aren’t on our list doesn’t mean that another state in our union can’t say, ‘we’re fine with it.’”
Pettyjohn’s amendment failed, though Sokola suggested it could merit a separate bill setting limits on who Delaware manufacturers can sell magazines to.
The high-capacity magazine ban passed 13-7; it now heads to the state House. Two other components of a gun safety package supported by state Democratic lawmakers and Governor John Carney — a ban on assault-style weapons and a bill raising the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21 — are up for consideration in the House Administration Committee on Wednesday.
