Firearms

Some of the other bills that I have supported and which are now law include:

• No firearms for persons subject to a PFA (Co-sponsor of HB 124 w/HA 1; 151 st GA) This Act prohibits a person who is the subject of a Protection from Abuse Order of the Family Court and who knows that the Order has been issued from purchasing, owning, possessing, or controlling a deadly weapon or ammunition for a firearm in this State. This Act also prohibits the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant, active indictment or information related to a felony or misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from purchasing a firearm.

• Establishment of the Gun Shop Project (Co-sponsor of HB 55 w/HA 1; 151st GA) In 2009, New Hampshire was the first state to develop a statewide Gun Shop Project, reaching out to gun shops regarding the role they can play in suicide prevention. In the years since, at least 21 other states have implemented similar campaigns. This Act establishes the Delaware Gun Shop Project. The Gun Shop Project’s primary purpose is to develop, create, and provide suicide prevention education materials and training, to be made available for dealers and consumers of licensed deadly weapons in Delaware.

• Increased penalties for straw purchases (Co-sponsor of HB 174; 149th GA) This Act raises the first offense of purchasing or obtaining a firearm for someone not legally qualified to own, possess or purchase one from a Class F to a Class E Felony. This change is to deter such purchases by making jail time more likely for the offender, and consequently, to reduce the number of people who cannot legally possess firearms but obtain them in this manner.

• Creation of Lethal Violence Protection Orders (Supported HB 222; 149th GA) This Act permits a family member or a law enforcement officer to obtain a lethal violence protective order or an emergency lethal violence protective order in JP Court if the Court finds probable cause to believe that a respondent poses an immediate and present danger of causing physical injury to self or others by owning, possessing, controlling, purchasing, having access to, or receiving a firearm. The order requires the relinquishment of firearms to law enforcement and may prohibit the individual from residing with others who possess firearms, and grants permission to law enforcement to search for and seize firearms.

• Creation of the Beau Biden Gun Violence Protection Act (Supported HB 302; 149th GA) This Act permits a mental health service provider, institution, agency, or hospital to disclose confidential communications to law enforcement if the mental health service provider, institution, agency, or hospital concludes that the patient is dangerous to self or dangerous to others. It also permits a law-enforcement officer to obtain an order of relinquishment from JP Court if the officer has probable cause to believe that an individual who is the subject of a report from a mental health provider is dangerous to others or self and in possession of firearms or ammunition.

• Bump stock ban (Supported HB 300; 149th GA) This bill makes it a crime to sell, transfer, buy, receive or possess a trigger crank or bump-fire device designed to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle, making such weapon function more like an automatic weapon. A bump stock was used by the gunman in Las Vegas in October 2017.

• Assault weapons (Supported HB 450; 151st GA) This bill prohibits the sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, receipt, possession, or transport of assault weapons in DE subject exceptions. It also creates a voluntary certificate of possession to enable a person who lawfully possesses an assault weapon before the effective date of the Act to show that the weapon is lawfully owned.

• Ban on large capacity magazines (Supported SS 1 for SB 6; 151st GA) This bill creates the Delaware Large-Capacity Magazine Prohibition Act of 2022, which does the following: (1) includes a clear definition for the term “large-capacity magazine” as an ammunition feeding device with a capacity to accept more than 17 rounds of ammunition; (2) prohibits the manufacture, sale, offer for sale, purchase, receipt, transfer, or possession of a large-capacity magazine; (3) prohibits the possession of a large-capacity magazine during the commission of a felony; and (4) establishes a buyback program for large-capacity magazines, to be overseen by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

• Age increase (Supported HB 451; 151st GA) This bill makes a person under the age of 21 prohibited from purchasing, owning, possessing, or controlling a firearm or ammunition of a firearm except under limited circumstances. Those circumstances are if the person is 18 years of age or older and an active member of the Armed Forces, a qualified law-enforcement officer, or has a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon. The Act does not apply to shotguns and shotgun ammunition, muzzle-loading rifles, and deadly weapons other than firearms. Persons under the age of 21 may possess or control a firearm for the purpose of engaging in lawful hunting, instruction, sporting, or recreational activity while under the direct supervision of a person 21 year of age or older.

• Repeal of immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers (Supported SB 302; 151st GA) This bill provides a cause of action to enable firearm manufacturers and retail dealers to be held accountable when they knowingly or recklessly take actions that endanger the health and safety of residents of this State through the sale, manufacture, distribution, and marketing of firearm-related products.