Last week, after the Moms Demand Action rally, Democratic lawmakers and state officials introduced three gun safety bills that aim to reduce gun violence via a gun permits, high capacity magazine bans and military assault weapon bans. The first bill we will profile here is the Gun Permit bill, and profiles on the other two bills will follow later today.
Senate Bill 69, primarily sponsored by Senator Laura Sturgeon, would require prospective gun buyers to obtain a permit from the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security before they can legally purchase a firearm. This gun permit system is similar if not identical to a system currently or formerly used in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Missouri.
“It makes no sense for the state to keep better records about who owns a car or a boat than who owns a firearm,” said Sen. Sturgeon (D), the prime sponsor of SB 69. “Right now, we require people to get a permit to carry a gun and to sell a gun but not to purchase a gun. Closing that gap is the surest way we can protect the rights of responsible gun owners who follow the law, while making sure guns do not get in the hands of criminals.”
Studies have shown that this permit system has been successful in keeping guns out of the hands of criminals or those who should not own weapons (such as the mentally ill or those under a court order not to possess weapons). Under Delaware’s bill, an application process is created to gain access to a “handgun qualified purchaser card, which a buyer must obtain in order to buy a handgun; and a “firearms qualified purchaser card,” which a buyer must obtain in order to buy a firearm other than a handgun, such as a rifle or a shotgun.
This bill requires licensed importers, manufacturers, or dealers, as well as unlicensed persons, to require an individual to present the individual’s handgun qualified purchaser card or firearms qualified purchaser card before selling or transferring a firearm.
Further, applicants would be required to complete a firearm training course, submit information similar to what can be found on a driver’s license, and have their fingerprints run through state and federal criminal databases. Further, the information already required to be collected for firearms sales would now also be required to be reported to law enforcement, which will assist in the investigation of gun crimes and discourage straw purchases.
A permit for handguns would authorize the purchase of one weapon during the 90 days the card is active. A permit for rifles and shotguns would be valid for three years and allow unlimited purchases during that time.
WHERE IS THE BILL? Senate Executive Committee as of 4/10/2019
DEMOCRATIC SPONSORS – Sturgeon, Townsend, McDowell, Griffith, Bentz, Lockman, Sokola, Baumbach, Bolden
REPUBLICAN SPONSORS –
YES VOTES –
NO VOTES –
Yikes, more common sense legislation, the reaction of the assorted NRA types should be interesting to see.
A permit to exercise my constitutional right? A statewide database (registration)? Even the Governor thinks this idea is crazy.
And yet you think it’s reasonable to require a permit to exercise your 1rst Amendment right to freely assemble? The 2nd is at least subject to being well regulated. There is no regulation clause for the 1rst. Shouldn’t you be protesting in the streets (after getting a permit to exercise that right of course).
Our constitutional rights are not without limits. Either recognize it or become a felon for not doing so.
Do you need a criminal backround check and training for a permit to protest? And you don’t always need a permit to have a demonstration.
Dave’s point was that constitutional rights come with limits. What limits are you willing to apply to the 2nd Amendment?
I believe we already have enough limits.
i believe we don’t have enough
The Parkland shooter fired more than 100 rounds from his AR-15 rifle during the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others in a 3 minute, 52-second span. Law enforcement recovered eight 30- and 40-round capacity magazines, according to a report from the state commission investigating the shooting.
At least according to the reporting at the South Florida Sun Sentinel
Wronnng:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article202486304.html
lol, the article quotes the rethuglican senator not the police report, dopey. You like me are a gun nut. Please explain why a duffel bag can carry 15 10 round magazine, but not 5 30 rounders….you are just lying to yourself. Pretty much the standard gun nut.
Um, the legislator was a Democrat. Read again.
So are you saying that 10 round mags should be banned as well??? She still contradicts what law enforcement is reporting about the case, lol. I don’t think I need to remind you of what a perverse state Florida is.
How many 30 rd mags can you get into your 511’s dopey? laughing and pointing at you.
I’m saying mag restrictions are pointless
You say everything is pointless, and mass killings are just the price we have to pay.
So why don’t you tell us how to stop/lessen the carnage, because we have a huge problem.