In a 13-8 vote, the Delaware Senate approved a portion of Governor Jack Markell's gun control agenda which was unveiled following the deadly school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
House Bill 35 requires background checks for nearly all gun sales and is designed to keep guns away from both criminals and those who are mentally ill.
"This is not about so many things that the opponents wanted to make it about," Markell said. "We believe in protecting the second amendment, we just want to keep weapons out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them." Markell is expected to sign the legislation into law, although a date for that signing has not been set yet. Once signed, the background check requirements would go into effect on July 1.
The legislation makes exceptions to the background check requirement for sales between immediate family members, as well as sales involving active duty or retired law enforcement officers. The bill also exempts sales involving antique firearms and replicas.
This is just one leg of Markell's gun control package. Other parts include a ban on the sale of high capacity magazines, an assault weapon ban. Markell also wants to require gun owners to report a loss or stolen weapon within 48 hours. He also is proposing a gun possession ban within 1,000 feet of a school.
Now that's not so bad, is it?
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Does anyone else not the fact that Democratic Governors see the brutal slaughter of dozens schoolchildren as an opportunity for political grandstanding?
ReplyDeleteAside from the legislation providing for the expansion of State background checks, and the requirement to report the theft of firearms, the other proposed legislation is actually quite inane to the issue of gun violence, and serves an little other than a political statement, at the expense of the shooting community and Constitutional civil liberties.
Which part? It looks to have varying levels from stupid and pointless to very bad.
ReplyDeleteTypical for you, Mikeb, you present something without all the details and ask us to agree to trust the bills. I treat gun legislation the same way that I would treat buying a used car--something requiring a good measure of suspicion, and something that I don't really want, anyway, since I have enough already.
ReplyDeleteWhy the exemption for retired law enforcement selling a gun?
ReplyDelete