By Joseph Edelen

DOVER— After years of attempts to pass permit-to-purchase legislation, Thursday’s session in the House of Representatives was fitting.

House lawmakers debated the bill for nearly four hours — introducing a total of 11 amendments in the process — before its near party line passage.

Senate Substitution 1 for Senate Bill 2 was led by Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington, and House Majority Leader Melissa Minor-Brown, D-New Castle, and allows Delawareans to buy a handgun if they have completed the necessary firearm training requirements and obtain a legal permit.

“Permit-to-purchase works at stopping crime and preventing gun trafficking, it’s popular among our constituents here in Delaware. It’s common sense to support this legislation,” Rep. Minor-Brown said while noting that, 83% of crime guns in the state are handguns, 70% of which are purchased in the state.

The legislation was scheduled for Thursday’s agenda nearly 10 months after its passage in the House Judiciary Committee, where the original version of the bill was substituted.

Amendments

One of those changes was altered after the bill was introduced on Thursday, as Rep. Minor-Brown brought forth an amendment to extend the permit validity to two years and removed the legislation’s voucher program; a measure that would assist low-income individuals by funding their handgun safety courses, which would have cost the state $1.7 million each year.

“We removed the voucher program because it just could not sustain in this bill at this time. But we are looking at other avenues on how we can still support a voucher program outside of this legislation,” she said.

After it passed with 29 yes votes, House Republicans introduced a number of amendments of their own.

The first, led by House Minority Whip Lyndon Yearick, R-Magnolia, aimed to expedite the background check process, while the second, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Spiegelman, R-Clayton, exempted certain qualified individuals from the bill’s permitting process — such as correctional officers, constables and members of the military — to reduce redundancy while considering state expenses.

Both failed with limited bipartisan support, leading to Rep. Spiegelman’s introduction of another amendment to provide training exemptions for similar populations of his previous proposal.

In response, Rep. Minor-Brown called the measure “redundant,” that it would make the policy more difficult for the State Bureau of Identification to administer, and that “it would actually be more restrictive than the bill itself.”

Rep. Spiegelman then said, “We’re requiring constables, that we trust to carry a gun in a school to protect our children, we’re requiring them to get extra training to (buy a) gun for themselves.”

The Republican-led amendment passed, with seven House Democrats joining in the vote.

Following the passage, Rep. Valerie Jones Giltner, R-Georgetown, with Rep. Mike Smith, R-Pike Creek, introduced another amendment to institute an expedited permitting process for individuals deemed by the courts to be at risk of domestic violence.

Lawmakers grappled over the topic, with Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, expressing his support for the idea, though he noted he could not vote in favor due to the short notice of the amendment.

It eventually failed, as well as the next two Republican proposed changes.

Rep. Minor-Brown then introduced two amendments of her own, one that addressed the security of personal information under the Freedom of Information Act, and another that continued the lengthy debate across the aisle.

The 11th amendment to the bill addressed Rep. Spiegelman’s House Amendment 6, by exempting certain individuals only if the firearm training they have taken meets the requirements under the permit-to-purchase bill.

House Republicans pushed back on the attempt, citing chamber rules for amendments that apply to when substantive changes can be introduced; although, those rules can be waived at the discretion of the Speaker of the House, according to House Democrat and Republican attorneys.

“Given that we’re now going back and forth between competing amendments, it’s perhaps just not ready for primetime, look, maybe we do need another week,” Rep. Spiegelman said.

In response, Rep. Minor-Brown stated, “This bill has been out since April 10, 2019. It wasn’t ready in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 now and you’re still saying the same thing.”

Final debate

After a 10-minute recess following the consideration of lawmakers’ amendments, the full bill was brought up for discussion.

As the majority leader explained why the bill is necessary, she noted that, in Delaware, 123 individuals die and 577 people are wounded by firearms in the average year; the fifth highest rate of gun violence in the nation.

Following her remarks, several House Republicans rose to debate the bill, with Joint Finance Committee member Rep. Charles Postles, R-Milford, raising concerns about the legislation’s Dec. 14 release from the House Appropriations Committee, in which minority party members were not consulted.

As the debate raged on, House Republicans requested House Attorney Ron Smith’s legal opinion on the legislation’s constitutionality.

The attorney cited a 2023 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that deemed Maryland’s permit-to-purchase law unconstitutional as precedent, and noted that the Delaware Constitution’s right-to-bear arms clause is more expansive than the U.S. Constitution.

“Historically, we haven’t done (permit-to-purchase),” Mr. Smith said. “It’s my legal opinion, that the court system, like the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Maryland case, is very likely to strike this down, and some of the testimony tonight may come back to influence that decision.”

While the Republican caucus attorney stated that Delaware’s version is very similar to the stricken Maryland law, Attorney General Kathy Jennings noted that Delaware is in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, not the fourth, so the decision has no bearing on the state.

“I am convinced this bill is constitutional, and that the appropriate courts will rule that it is constitutional,” the attorney general said after being called as a witness. “What’s being done here is reasonable regulations and requirements to enable people to carry guns safely. This was determined to do one thing and one thing only, and that is to save lives."

After the lengthy debate on the permit-to-purchase bill, lawmakers passed the measure by a vote of 23 yes, 16 no and two absent.

Following its passage Thursday, the bill was sent back to the Senate for final approval, just days after Gov. John Carney committed to enacting the legislation into law before he leaves office next year.

“Over the past seven years, we’ve banned assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, we’ve passed red flag laws and prevented straw purchases,” the governor said. “This year, we’ll take another big step forward and pass the permit to purchase law.”