Johannes Sayre is a resident of Lewes.
In the following, I speak for myself only. I’ve been a target shooter for 26 years and have been certified as a National Rifle Association range safety officer. I’m not a lawyer and have no financial interest in the firearms industry or shooting sports.
Delaware’s Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 300 would establish state licensing for dealers for all firearms, including rifles and shotguns. This licensing would operate in parallel with federal licensing already required for dealers.
SS 1 for SB 300 would require licensed dealers to report their sales records — specifically, identifying information for firearms sold and their dates of sale — to the Delaware State Police twice a year.
Thus, SS 1 for SB 300 would establish a state registry for firearms.
Currently, Title 24, Chapter 9, Section 904A(c) of Delaware Code prohibits the establishment of “any system for the registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions,” except with respect to persons not permitted to own firearms.
SS 1 for SB 300 adds an exception to this prohibition, with respect to sales or transfers of firearms under the licensing scheme it would establish. So, while SS 1 for SB 300 does not revoke the existing prohibition against a state firearms registry, it nullifies it by establishing such a registry.
The registration of firearms has historically been viewed with concern in the United States. U.S. law currently forbids it at the federal level. Delaware law prohibits it to date.
There is reason for this concern. Some in the gun control community have stated that they view gun registration as a step on the way to the prohibition of firearms. Historically, dictators and junk governments from Adolf Hitler to Cuba to the Soviet Union have used gun registration data to disarm their publics and institute tyranny.
America’s founders knew that the Second Amendment and the individual right to keep and bear arms were safeguards against autocracy; that was their lived experience. Similarly, individuals in a modern civil society have an inherent right to justified self-defense, and restricting that is not in the public interest. Even though we live in a functioning democracy, for these reasons, gun registration has always been viewed with concern in the United States, and we should view it that way in Delaware, as well.
Constituents should urge their state legislators to oppose the firearms registration requirement that SS 1 for SB 300 imposes.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
