Delaware: Legislature Adjourns from its 2018 Legislative Session

Yesterday, the Delaware General Assembly adjourned from their 2018 Legislative Session. Anti-gun legislators and Governor Carney worked hard this session in an attempt to impose extreme anti-gun legislation onto law-abiding Delaware gun owners.  Thankfully when the gavel finally fell, those gun control measure had failed to garner enough votes to make it to Governor Carney’s desk.  A few of those bills are outlined below:

• Senate Bill 163 pushed by Governor Carney, sought to ban semi-automatic firearms commonly-owned for self-defense, target shooting and hunting.  Further, SB 163 would have banned the sale, transfer, purchase, or possession of so-called “assault weapons.”  Senate Bill 163 was one of the most extreme gun control bills introduced this session.
• House Bill 375 originally sought to ban the manufacture, sale, purchase, transfer, or delivery of so-called “large-capacity magazines.”  What the bill really intended to ban was standard capacity magazines with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition.  The legislation even acknowledged that “thousands of law-abiding Delawareans currently possess” such magazines, and will allow them to use them at the range but not in public for self-defense.  Since this legislation, like all other gun control bills, would be disregarded by criminals, House Bill 375 was literally drafted with the express intent to restrict law-abiding Delawareans from being able to use the most effective means to defend themselves.
• House Bill 330, legislation that would have prohibited law-abiding adults aged 18 to 20 from purchasing or transferring a rifle or rifle ammunition without permission from a parent or guardian.  This legislation is outright offensive and demeaning to Delaware’s young adults who are otherwise allowed to vote, join the military, and exercise every other constitutionally guaranteed right.

While the above and other anti-gun bills died this session, multiple pro-hunting bills were passed to the Governor's desk, including:

• Senate Bill 198 eliminates the prohibition against hunting for deer on Sundays and allows for the harvesting of deer on Sundays through DNREC’s deer depredation programs.
• Senate Bill 31 allows a hunter to use a handgun in lieu of a shotgun on farms permitted by DNREC through their Deer depredation programs to reduce agricultural crop damage.

Thank you to the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, NRA Members and all Second Amendment supporters who continued to contact their legislators in strong opposition to these gun control measures. It was because of you that they were defeated.  Also, special thanks to those legislators who staunchly opposed these anti-gun bills through the 2018 Legislative Session.