State Senate lawmakers will once again consider requiring a firearms safety course and a permit to purchase a handgun, revisiting a proposal that stalled during the previous legislative session.
The bill lays out a multi-step procedure for obtaining a permit to purchase: First, a prospective buyer would first need to complete a firearms training course, either through an established firearms training school or through a law enforcement agency. Next, they would submit an application to Delaware’s State Bureau of Investigation, which would take their fingerprints and conduct a more extensive background check than is required for most other firearms purchases. If approved, Delaware's Department of Safety and Homeland Security would issue them a 180-day permit to purchase as many handguns as they choose.
Last year’s version of the bill faltered in a House committee after opponents argued it could effectively create a temporary registry of handgun owners; Delaware code does not currently allow the creation of a universal firearms registry. Gun owner advocacy groups also contended that the cost of training and permitting would make it prohibitively difficult for low-income people to purchase handguns.
Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence Director Traci Manza Murphy says the latest iteration of the bill — sponsored by state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman, who also sponsored last year's bill — attempts to allay those concerns, including by requiring the state to provide low- or no-cost training options for low-income Delawareans.
While that could take the form of a voucher for an existing firearms training course, Murphy says a better option may involve using a state agency to provide low-cost training courses in each county. "We figure Delaware should get ahead of it," she said.
While the bill explicitly avoids limiting law enforcements' ability to retain records for their own use, it does not allow the state to keep a registry of permit holders. But Murphy says that some backers hope lawmakers will pursue such a registry in a separate bill.
“We are going to support the bill as it is and lean in hard on an additional policy to support the record-keeping aspect," she said. "The reason we need that is law enforcement needs to be able to know who purchased guns with their permit to purchase that are ending up at crime scenes in Wilmington.”
Meanwhile, opponents like Delaware Sportsmen's Association President Jeff Hague maintain that despite the adjustments in the new bill, the proposal runs afoul of constitutional protections for firearms ownership and the recent US Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which struck down a New York law requiring a license and proper cause to carry a handgun.
Hague also contends that firearms safety courses are stretched too thin to accommodate the thousands of Delawareans who purchase handguns each year.
"A right delayed is a right denied," he said. "Right now, the classes are full. Now you’re requiring that everyone who wants to purchase a handgun go through a class. That could take six months to eight months to get into a class before you can get a permit. That’s a right denied because it’s delayed so long.”
Hague says he has his doubts that the bill will reach the Governor's desk this year, but if it does, he says the Delaware Sportsmen's Association will file a constitutional challenge to have the law overturned.
The organization has a mixed record in its recent efforts to challenge Delaware firearms laws. In March, a federal judge denied the Delaware Sportsmen's Association's request for a temporary injunction to stall implementation of the state's new bans on the sale of many semi-automatic rifles and the possession of high-capacity magazines. But in September, a different federal judge granted the group's request for a temporary injunction to bar enforcement of some parts of Delaware's ban on so-called "ghost guns."
Murphy says she expects the General Assembly's discussion of the bill to raise questions about the usefulness of firearms for home defense — a subject at the center of national attention after highly publicized incidents in Missouri and New York in which homeowners unarmed shot young people who accidentally entered their property.
The bill will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.
