The Delaware General Assembly passed a few firearm bills this year, and a few more are hung up and can be brought back next year. (Photo by Mariusz Blach/Adobe Stock)
Delaware’s state legislature is not immune to the national discussions on key societal issues, such as firearms.
With this year’s legislative session ending Sunday, here’s a look at the bills relating to guns that passed in 2024:
Sponsored by Rep. Jeff Spiegelman, R-Clayton, the bill derives from a task force charged with updating the state’s definition of “firearm.”
One reason for a new definition is due to Delaware’s general and large definition of a “firearm,” in which any device that launches any object by any means is considered a firearm under current law.
That would include nail guns, slingshots, crossbows, staplers, archery equipment, Air Soft guns and more if the police or a prosecutor wished to consider them as such.
This created issues, like if someone was outlawed from owning or using a firearm was a construction worker, per se, and using a nail gun on the job.
Among cleaning up some of those technicalities, the bill creates a definition for a new term, “projectile weapon”, defined as weapons previously included in the definition of a firearm, but which are not within the common understanding of a firearm.
Examples include crossbows and fishing spears.
Sponsored by Rep. Eric Morrison, D-Glasgow, the bill creates a voluntary firearms do-not-sell registry.
Applicants can choose to enroll in this registry to make sure they are prohibited from obtaining a firearm.
Morrison previously said one of the main reasons for the bill is to prevent suicides.
Someone on the registry can request removal after 30 days on it.
Anyone who transfers a firearm to a person in violation of the bill is guilty of a class A misdemeanor for a first offense and a class G felony for subsequent offenses.
Sponsored by Rep. Cyndie Romer, D-Newark, the bill adds post-secondary colleges and universities to the Safe School Zone criminal offense.
Any person who knowingly possesses a firearm while in or on a college or university facility or campus can now be charged with an additional offense, which is class E felony.
Class E felonies result in up to five years incarceration.
Opponents of the bill, notably Spiegelman, argued that the bill creates complications for those with concealed carry permits.
HB 311 also adds commissioned security guards to the categories of individuals who may possess a firearm while acting in their official capacity within a Safe School Zone.
The others permitted to carry a gun are:
- A police officer.
- A constable employed by a school or school district who is acting in an official capacity within a Safe School Zone.
- An active-duty member of the United States Armed Forces or Delaware National Guard who is acting in an official capacity within a Safe School Zone.
- A holder of a valid license to carry concealed deadly weapons but only if the firearm is in a vehicle.
- Employees of the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families who are authorized by the Secretary of the Department to carry a firearm while acting in the employee’s official capacity.
- Probation and parole officers acting within the officer’s official capacity.
- A qualified retired law-enforcement officer who is employed or contracted by a school or school district to assist with security or investigations and who is acting in an official capacity within a Safe School Zone.
Sponsored by Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, the bill reinstates references in the “Safe Recreation Zone” statute to weapons other than firearms and makes other minor technical corrections.
It adds a qualified retired law-enforcement officer who is employed or contracted by a school or district to assist with security or investigations to the list of persons exempt from the prohibition on the knowing possession of a firearm in or on a Safe School Zone.
It also clarifies that constables employed by a school or a school district and acting in an official capacity are exempt.
Sponsored by Rep. Kim Williams, D-Marshallton, the bill creates a civil penalty for any sale or display of ammunition that allows the ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser or transferee without the assistance of the vendor or an employee of the vendor.
It somewhat was in response to the December 2022 case of 38-year-old Danielle Brookens, who stole up to 500,000 rounds of ammunition and sold it to drug dealers and violent criminals in the state and Philadelphia. in the process of stealing ammunition.
Ammunition in an enclosed display case, behind a counter or other customer access preventing device is considered inaccessible under the bill.
A violation carries a penalty of $1,000 for a first offense, $5,000 for the second and $10,000 for a third or subsequent offense.
Note that all the above bills have passed both chambers — the House of Representatives and Senate — and are waiting the governor’s signature to officially become law. There were a handful of other gun-related bills that either failed, or have not yet made it through the House and Senate, and thus can be brought back next year.
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