By Matt Bittle

DOVER — The Delaware Senate on Thursday will debate gun-control bills that would require training and a permit to buy a handgun and would ban magazines capable of holding more than 17 rounds, after a committee approved them Wednesday.

The proposals, which were filed last week, drew a strong response from the public: Forty-one people spoke and significantly more signed up to comment via Zoom but couldn’t due to a two-hour time limit. Of those who did provide testimony, 28 opposed the measures.

The main sponsors of the two bills announced on the eve of Wednesday’s hearing that the legislation would receive a vote in the full Senate the following day if the bills got out of committee, citing an “urgency for public safety laws that will protect Delawareans from the threat of gun violence gripping our communities.”

President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola, a Newark Democrat, and Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, a Democrat representing part of Wilmington, said in a statement: “Legislation to ban high-capacity magazines and establish a permit-to-purchase system for handguns have both been considered in the General Assembly in recent years. These policies are not new and, put simply, Delawareans have waited too long for us to act on them. Too many lives are at risk to justify any further delay in their consideration before the full Senate.”

Senate Bill 3 would mandate that individuals seeking to buy a handgun must first complete a training course. The person would then be able to submit an application to the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which would issue a qualified-purchaser card within 30 days (as long as the applicant is eligible). Applicants would have to pay for training and a background check.

The bill places no limit on the number of firearms that can be purchased during the 180 days a qualified-purchaser card is valid.

Delawareans who already have a concealed-carry permit would be exempt from the training course.

Senate Bill 6 would outlaw “large-capacity” magazines — ones defined as capable of holding 18 or more rounds. The measure would create a buyback program and give Delaware gun owners until June 30, 2022, to sell their magazines to the state for $10 apiece.

The bills, which come just a few weeks after mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia killed a combined 18 people, are aimed at limiting gun violence in the state, in particular large-scale shootings.

Similar versions of both proposals were introduced in 2019 but never made it out of committee.

Wednesday, the four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to let the bills advance, while the two Republicans opposed them. Those proposals were expected to be on the Senate agenda Thursday, the last day before a two-week break.

“No reasonable person can look at the realities on the ground, the gun violence that my office confronts every single week and has devastated communities across the country, and accept the status quo,” Attorney General Kathy Jennings told the committee. “Nothing will change if we change nothing.”

To supporters, the measures are commonsense proposals that could limit or even stop mass shootings, as well as reduce the daily gun violence that plagues Wilmington, while not being a burden on gun owners. They cited studies touting decreases in the gun homicide and suicide rates in Connecticut after that state enacted a permit-to-purchase law and increases in the same categories in Missouri when it repealed its permit requirement, as well as data indicating that limits on magazine sizes reduce gun violence.

“The more bullets one can fire, the more death and injury one can cause,” said Sen. Sokola, the main sponsor of the magazine bill. “These tools of destruction were banned by the federal government from 1994 to 2004, and during that time, the number of people dying in high-fatality mass shootings fell by 43%. Since then, the number of mass-shooting deaths has jumped by 240%.”

A 2013 report from Johns Hopkins University found permit-to-purchase laws result in a stark decline in “crime gun exports.” However, a 2018 analysis from the RAND Corp., a think tank, concluded it’s unclear whether such laws lower gun crimes.

Polling released by the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence last week indicated that 74% of Delawareans back a permit-to-purchase statute, including 69% of gun owners.

Per the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 10 states have passed laws requiring individuals to get a license to buy at least some types of firearms, while nine have restrictions on large-capacity magazines.

But others Wednesday claimed that the studies cited by supporters are cherry-picked and biased, bashing the legislation as unconstitutional, unnecessary and harmful.

“They are far overreaching,” David Mellon testified. “You have to understand that criminals do not abide by the law, and by limiting our capacity to defend ourselves, we are going to be outmatched by criminals. That is just unacceptable.”

Michael Wright agreed, describing ammunition in a magazine as “tickets ... for the worst raffle you’ve ever been entered in.” The more “tickets” one has, the more likely one is to survive a dangerous situation, he said, adding, “Are your loved ones only worth 17 rounds?”

Speakers attacked the bills as hurting the people they are intended to protect, with particular rancor for the permit-to-purchase proposal. That measure, many people said, would really impact individuals living in poverty, a disproportionate share of whom are minorities, because it adds new fees. It could also stop victims of domestic violence and similar offenses from getting a firearm quickly to defend themselves, speakers pointed out.

Several people noted that the Delaware Constitution contains its own provision protecting gun rights that goes further than the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does.

“Tell me one other right that requires a license or permit, and please don’t say a driver’s license,” Denise Clendenning said. “That’s a privilege.”

Ryan Bunting described the proposals as “feel-good bills that seek to trample over basic human rights under the guise of safety,” while Michael Corcoran pledged to sue if they become law.

Near the end of the two-hour hearing, Chris Joseph said what many of the opponents of the legislation were surely feeling.

“I can speak for the tens of thousands of gun owners in Delaware: We will not comply,” he said. “Have a nice day.”

But backers remained resolute, steadfast in their support and their belief that the proposals are necessary, legal and fair.

Large magazines are “weapons of war” intended to kill many people as quickly as possible, Iskeisha Stuckey told the committee, while Megan O’Donnell, who survived a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that killed 60 people, wondered how many lives could have been saved if the shooter there had to stop and reload.

“Gun violence is not a left-or-right issue,” Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence Executive Director Traci Murphy said. “It’s a life-or-death issue, and it’s a public-health crisis.”

The bills have the support of Gov. John Carney, meaning they should become law if passed by both chambers.