John Carney
Delaware Gov. John Carney (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

In proof that even small states that account for a small percentage of the total gun ownership in America can still pass laws that are a huge pain in the butt for said gun owners, NRA-ILA reported over the weekend that the Delaware Senate passed Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) by a vote of 15 to 6. The purely anti-gun “legislation will impose a Maryland-style ‘handgun qualified purchase card’ and a handgun transfer registry, creating a perpetual cycle of costs and delays to maintain” a citizen’s ability to purchase a handgun.

“SB 2 now goes to Governor Carney for his expected signature,” NRA-ILA reported, urging members and all gun owners in Delaware for that matter to contact the governor’s office and urging him to oppose the bill.

More from NRA-ILA:

SB 2 requires citizens to obtain a deceptively named “handgun qualified purchaser permit” to purchase or receive a handgun, with an exemption for carry permit holders. To obtain a permit, an applicant is required to, at their own expense, take an approved training course and to submit fingerprints. The permits are to be renewed every two years, although the training course is valid for five years. The State Bureau of Identification has up to 30 days to issue a permit. Additionally, this legislation creates a registry of all lawful handgun transfers.

Surprisingly, Delaware rates 30th in states for gun ownership with 38.7 percent of residents in the state estimated to have at least one gun. That’s impressive that such a northeastern state ranks so high.

Delaware percentagewise has more gunowners than Florida, in which 28.8 percent of residents have a gun.

Of course, as of 2023, Delaware, our nation’s 45th most populous state, only had an estimated 1,031,890 residents compared to Florida’s 22,610,726 residents, according to Britannica. Florida is our country’s third most populous state coming in behind only Texas (2nd) and California (1st). That translates into roughly 399,341 gun owners in Delaware versus more than 6.5 million in Florida for those looking to compare solid numbers, but with so many Delaware residents among the gun-owning class, firearms are clearly an important topic to a sizable number of the state’s residents.

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29 COMMENTS

    • By populace law abiding Gun Owners are a minority in deleware. And from Historical Analogies we know what Gun Control has done to minorities, Jews, etc. Another unconstitutional law that will drag through courts that are mostly stacked with azzholes just like the azzholes who concoct such laws…What happens when the public perception of Gun Control is something wonderful instead of being seen as racist, nazi turds in a punchbowl.

      • possum…A pathetic gun control butt kisser like you needs to wear a propeller cap that sez, “Don’t Slap Poop Spatters.”

      • what would make a turd raysis? the “there is nothing in corn that your body needs” ones who hate the asparagus piss folk?
        fembot has accused you of kissing gun control’s butt. but poop splatters is so first grade.

        • jr…you are the definition of poop for brains…In other words bigot you let what has been all along a very big rat speak for himself.

      • Debbie Dimwit,

        Y U B so persistently STOOPID??? tsbhoa and possum are BOTH way smarter than you, and far more entertaining. You insults would be embarrassing for a first grader to utter on the playground. Your “knowledge” of politics, policy, gun control, or simple REALITY are on the level of MajorLiar and dacian the demented. You haven’t made an intelligent comment on this blog since I started reading it. NO ONE on this site seems to like, enjoy, or appreciate your nitwit, repetitive (and absurdly simplistic) statements OR you childish, playground insults of people FAR smarter, more articulate, and more grounded in reality than are you. I have no idea what you think you are accomplishing, or even what you DESIRE to accomplish, with your less-than-quarter-wit comments, but . . . whatever it is, it ain’t workin’.

        Don’t go away mad, Debbie Dimwit, just . . . go away. Far, far away, and stay gone. You will NOT be missed by ANYONE here. Just sayin’.

    • Agreed. This is a poll tax in disguise.

      There is no history or political science education prerequisite to exercise your right to vote.

      Any training or licensing requirements to exercise the right to bear arms is an infringement on that right.

      Bruen already established that bearing arms outside the home is a protected right. It’s time for all the conditions placed on that right to be abolished.

  3. We repealed permits to purchase law 17 years ago in Missouri.
    I guess Delaware is getting ready for the next 10/7.
    I hope it turns out well for them.

  4. Only 1 million people in Delaware? Biden has allowed 7x that number to illegally cross the border. Delaware should have to take every one of them in. They asked for it. According to the propaganda from a few years ago, it would make them all very rich. Maybe they can fight NY over it.

  7. OT – any legal eagles out there can explain how the 5th Circuit can overrule SCOTUS on the latest stop on the obscenity trail? Is this outright insurrection in the judiciary, or am l struggling with the handicap of low information?

    Looks to me like the 5th is acting as an agent for the cartel (to include the govt) smuggling industry.

    I hear 1500$ per unit is a sound number as a lower bound.

    Note that cartels are known to kill those who try to cross without paying them.

  8. And I ask. What good is a concealed handgunm permit in a Nudist colony?
    .
    One thing these lawmakers don’t seem to understand is all their 2A infringements have no effect on a real criminal.
    What gunm laws do is make a criminal out of an otherwise honest firearmn carrying citezen.
    Felon in possession.
    How did he get a gunm in prison? Oh, I see, he got it on the street. So he is a human that the ‘system’ said was okay to be released into society but couldn’t be trusted not to commit crimes with a deadly weapon. That don’t make no sense to me.

    • Or, they understand perfectly well and deterring legal gun ownership is the true purpose.

      • “ask dallas archer.”

        A horrible thing to do with an NAA Mini-Revolver.

        How many hours of boiling to sterilize it, I wonder…

  11. NJ has a similar law, and I believe that Hawaii’s requirement for a purchase permit has been challenged but is still in effect. These laws change a right into the exercise of a privilege (like a driver’s license–except that re-qualifying after additional training every five years is not required), and one would hope that the courts would agree that they are unconstitutional. These laws are infringements intended to make acquiring handguns more onerous in an attempt to reduce the number of persons possessing them.

  13. This is just more proof that we’re living in a post-Constitutional country.

    Kangaroo courts nationwide have affirmed that citizens are required to pay a fee and get a license from the state in order to exercise a right enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Since the precedent has been set, the rest of the Constitutional rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are meaningless. What’s to stop the government from demanding that we pay for a license to buy a newspaper or a magazine, or attend a religious service, or to cast a ballot?

    The answer is: nothing!

    • “It’d be nice to be aware of the turd before you stepped on it.”

      Now, where’s the fun in that? 😉

  16. … uhhh, wait a minute — I though they claimed only assault rifles killed people. Have they changed their minds now??????

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