Delaware Governor John Carney Jr
Delaware Governor John Carney Jr. (AP Photo/Randall Chase)

From the Second Amendment Foundation . . .

The State of Delaware has backed away from closing gun shops during the current Coronavirus pandemic crisis, a decision the Second Amendment Foundation says is the right thing to do.

Under the revised language of the state’s emergency order,

Firearms dealers may conduct sales of firearms, ammunition, and other goods directly related to responsible firearm storage and maintenance, by appointment only. No more than two appointments per half hour shall occur, and sellers are limited to operating during normal working hours they operated on prior to the State of Emergency. Any seller who violates such directive may be subject to criminal prosecution or other civil enforcement remedies up to and including arrest or the involuntary closure of the business.

“This is a great win for Delaware gun owners and the right to keep and bear arms,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “After we sued New Jersey, our threatened lawsuit against Delaware, in which we were partnering with our friends at the National Rifle Association and Firearms Policy Coalition played a key role in bringing about this change of heart.”

SAF is currently considering lawsuits against several jurisdictions over gun shop closures that were announced as part of executive orders that do not recognize gun and ammunition dealers and suppliers as “essential businesses.”

“We’re delighted that cooler heads have prevailed in Delaware,” Gottlieb observed. “A considerable amount of hard work went into this, and to be honest, we’d rather not have to file lawsuits against anybody under the present circumstances.

“We can think of no more essential endeavor outside of health care and emergency services during a time of crisis than a business that enables citizens to exercise their fundamental right protected by the Second Amendment,” he concluded.

 

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

40 COMMENTS

  1. “This is a great win for Delaware gun owners and the right to keep and bear arms,” This should read Delaware Citizens, as the gun owners already own them. The majority of non-gun owners should consider tooling up.

  2. Seems like this weekend’s news will be centered around which Govs & Sheriffs will allow for 2A-related activities to continue, and which ones will not.

    Remember in November, everyone.

  3. For me, this just solidified my choice in who to donate money to in the future. (As bleak as it looks).

    2AF is winning battle after battle, while the NRA just sits back paying WLP to shop for $10,000.00 suits.

    • I have rarely given to the NRA. 2AF and GOA were my go to. I have angered many people by telling them my opinion that the NRA didn’t (doesn’t) do enough to protect our rights, or work towards repealing unconstitutional bills.

        • Just pretend all your dues go to the NRA Foundation. They bought a few shotguns and a pallet of shot shells for the under privileged kids to use during last years USA high school clay target league.

    • “After we sued New Jersey, our threatened lawsuit against Delaware, in which we were partnering with our friends at the National Rifle Association and Firearms Policy Coalition played a key role in bringing about this change of heart.”
      You probably missed this part, didn’t you, Tom… Gotlieb’s organization works hand in hand with NRA just about all of the time- SAF always has a booth at the conventions and there’s not a lot of acrimony between to the two groups.

      Being a foundation, SAF can use nearly 100% of it’s available assets to put towards legal efforts. They don’t have any membership subscriptions to service with magazines and other demands, offer no perks, there isn’t even an active attempt to increase “membership”. I’d bet the money NRA is on the hook for just to publish and send out magazines is more than SAF spends annually. They also don’t contribute to individual candidates, have vast training and safety programs nor will they contribute financially very deeply in the 2020 elections. SAF is a very narrowly-focussed organization that does well at what it sets out to do but hardly is comparable to NRA.

  4. “:Delaware Governor Backs Down, Designates Gun Stores as Essential”

    Too little, too late…this WILL be remembered…No more “Mea culpa’s”…

  5. Should never have stuck her democRat Behind in the face of the public in the first place. Such knee jerk politicians want to appear like they are smart and on the ball. Fact is they are as dumb as dirt and not to be trusted.

    • The clueless one in the photo is not Democrat Gov. John Carney. That pic is the Queen of Rhode Island.

  6. Think the citizens of Deleware are tired of identity politics yet, or will they waste votes again this time!?

    • Delaware suffers from a 2-1 registered democrat majority, with more arriving from PA, NJ and MD every day. They could run a dead cat on the dem ticket and win. The R party is nearly dead in Delaware, they have no power.

      • ” The R party is nearly dead in Delaware ”

        Not exactly true. The 2:1 majority of Dems over Reps is true of New Castle County. It also holds that New Castle has at least a 2:1 majority of the population of the whole state. The lower two counties – Kent and Sussex – are more to the red side than the blue. And in Sussex county, finding a Democrat is just as difficult as finding a Republican in New Castle.

        We’ve had Republican governors in the past, so a lack of Republicans is not the main reason (though it certainly is a big one) the party is so weak here. It’s mostly a matter of surrender. We have two senators and representative. Delaware will never be a high-stakes player on the national scene, and the best it can do on that level, it seems, is to send a drooling, brain-addled grifter to the national convention.

        • “Delaware will never be a high-stakes player on the national scene,” So true especially now that our electoral votes are no longer decided by Delawareans, but by the national majority vote.

      • Precisely.
        Although, it’s theorized Joe might have lost if he didn’t move to the Naval Observatory. The loss of two car factories and consolidation of banks and credit companies angered the passive democrats. They wanted him to do something about it and he sure enough did.
        He fled.

  7. Montana governor signed lockdown effective midnight 28 March. Even though he is a staunch Democrat putz he did not try to close gun stores (probably because he is running for the Senate and that would have been a death knell to his ambitions).

  8. This is bordering on a Pyrrhic victory.

    Notice the relevant wording of the revised order:

    No more than two appointments per half hour shall occur, and sellers are limited to operating during normal working hours they operated on prior to the State of Emergency.

    The revised order appears to limit firearm sales to no more than four sales per hour, even though a firearm store could very well support 10 times that many sales while still upholding protective measures to prohibit spread of COVID-19 virus. And the revised order obviously limits store hours at a time when it probably makes perfect sense for firearm stores to be open for extended hours.

    To put this into proper perspective, would it be okay if Delaware only had a handful of gas stations and Delaware’s Governor limited gas stations to no more than four appointments per hour for gasoline sales — and limited station hours? Absolutely not!

    • Large stores might be able to handle more while following the prescribed protocols but most smaller stores likely can’t. They just don’t have the floor space.

      Out of the many, many gun stores I have been in I can’t think of more than a couple dozen that can give more than 15 or so patrons a 6′ “safety radius” (113.1 square feet per person) without removing a lot of shelving and the associated products.

      Most have the square footage on paper but that’s with nothing in the store to take up space.

      “Social distancing” requires a lot of space when you think about it.

      • strych9,

        There is a simple way for a small store to process many more than 4 sales per hour while upholding COVID-19 protective measures.

        The store simply directs patrons to queue up outside instead of inside and wait outside instead of inside while the store processes their sale. And the store limits the number of patrons inside to a small enough number that ensures safe spacing.

        • I’d be more likely to patronize the black market than stand in line like that outside a gun store.

          But maybe that’s just me.

        • Then you’re just moving the problem outside. Humans are freaking weird and there will ALWAYS be someone breathing down your neck while lined up as if they’re going to lose their place by being more than 5 inches away from the next person.

    • Your final analogy makes uncommon_sense…a rare and precious commodity in these times of Democrat leadership doubling down on subjugating the populace.

    • Imagine if Home Depot had to limit generator sales to 2 appointments per hour and only during normal business hours.

      Substitute the transaction of needed items as needed.

      But one again, guns are those magic objects needing special rules and regulations because guns.

  9. I live in the people’s Republic of Western Oregon. We have the same problems maggot brained politicians running things. Remember to vote in nov

  10. “By appointment only and no more than two per half hour.” is still restrictive. That’s still a loss for large stores with several employees who could be attending customers. That still boils down to Restricted Rights.

  11. Did someone manage to inform the governor of the fact that the sun still rises in the East? As to this “appointment” business, while some might view that as an improvement, it smells poorly to me.

  12. OH! we went too far with restrictions. We’ll back off and only restrict you this much.Sound familiar? (NRA)
    Same shit different day.

  13. That photo is Gina raimondo d from Rhode Island . Took two million from mayor mike and put one of his every town people on her cabinet ( 150+k a year salary ) to advise on gun laws .just exstend waiting period for guns from 7 to 30 days , closes Ranges ( sued so now can open but only two people present regardless of size ) and has police stopping all cars with New York plates and national guard stopping all inbound ny travelers at airport and train station.
    Loves the power to rule by decree

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