{"id":2197157,"date":"2024-03-12T07:30:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/delaware-house-approves-divisive-handgun-licensing-laws\/"},"modified":"2024-03-12T07:30:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:30:02","slug":"delaware-house-approves-divisive-handgun-licensing-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/delaware-house-approves-divisive-handgun-licensing-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaware House approves \u2018divisive\u2019 handgun licensing laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdelaware-house-approves-divisive-handgun-licensing-laws%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2197157&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>(The Center Square) \u2014 The Delaware House of Representatives has approved a \u201cdivisive\u201d bill that would require a state license and training to own a handgun despite the threat of a legal challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> The\u00a0proposal, which passed 23-16 on a largely party-line vote, would require Delaware residents to obtain a permit to purchase a handgun after completing an approved firearm training course. The Democratic-controlled Senate approved a similar bill last year.<\/p>\n<p> Backers of the plan argue that it would reduce gun violence, suicides and homicides and crack down on illegal \u201cstraw purchases\u201d of handguns on behalf of those prohibited by law from possessing them.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThis legislation has been the product of years of discussions, meetings and collaboration with colleagues in this building, constituents, advocates and stakeholders,\u201d House Majority Leader Melissa Minor-Brown, D-New Castle. \u201cThat is the fifth-highest rate of gun violence in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Republican lawmakers who opposed the \u201cdivisive\u201d proposal argued the regulations violate the Second Amendment rights and would do little to curb gun violence in the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Under the proposal, anyone who wants to purchase a handgun must complete a firearms training course and submit to a background check \u2014 including fingerprinting \u2014 by the state Bureau of Identification. If approved, a handgun permit would be valid for two years and could be revoked if the state agency determines the person is a risk to themselves or others.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Those with valid concealed carry permits and qualified law enforcement officers would not be required to obtain or present a handgun purchase permit.<\/p>\n<p> The bill comes with a price tag for the state\u2019s taxpayers. A legislative analysis of the proposal estimated that the permitting system would cost the state $3 million in the first year to implement the system, and another $7.8 million annually. That includes the cost of a proposed voucher program to defray training and permitting costs for low-income residents.<\/p>\n<p> A GOP amendment to the bill would exempt people with firearms training, members of the military, certified firearms instructors, and licensed gun dealers from the training requirements, but the chamber\u2019s Democratic majority narrowed the scope of that exemption with another amendment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, supports the move and has called for more than $2.9 billion for the firearm licensing program in his upcoming budget, set to be released soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> \u201cOver the past seven years, we\u2019ve banned assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines,\u201d Carney said during his State of the State speech last Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019ve passed red flag laws and prevented straw purchases. This year, we\u2019ll take another big step forward and pass the permit to purchase law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> But the push to tighten firearm laws comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in a Maryland lawsuit challenging the state\u2019s decade-old permit-to-purchase law, which was declared unconstitutional by a three-judge panel in a November decision.<\/p>\n<p> Republican lawmakers argued during the debate on the House version of the bill that it was likely to be deemed unconstitutional. Only a handful of other states have similar handgun permit laws, some of which are facing legal challenges, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> The Delaware Sportsman\u2019s Association, which represents gun owners, has called the handgun permit proposal \u201cpure politics\u201d and vowed to file a legal challenge if the plan is approved.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> But Delaware\u2019s Attorney General Kathy Jennnings said she is \u201cconvinced\u201d that Delaware\u2019s gun permitting proposal would survive any constitutional legal challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI am convinced this bill is constitutional and that the appropriate courts will rule that it is constitutional,\u201d Jennings, a Democrat, said in remarks on Thursday. \u201cWhat\u2019s being done here is reasonable regulations and requirements to enable people to carry guns safely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Because the House amended the bill, it must now go back to the Senate for a vote before heading to Carney\u2019s desk for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(The Center Square) \u2014 The Delaware House of Representatives has approved a \u201cdivisive\u201d bill that would require a state license and training to own a handgun despite the threat of a legal challenge.\u00a0 The\u00a0proposal, which passed 23-16 on a largely party-line vote, would require Delaware residents to obtain a permit to purchase a handgun after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2197158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/AP23107454876617.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/AP23107454876617.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2197158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}