Lawmakers in President Biden's home state have rushed a ban on commonly-owned semi-auto firearms and standard capacity magazines to Delaware Gov. John Carney’s desk.
Among several pieces of anti-gun legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Delaware legislature this term were House Bill 450 and Senate Bill 6, companion pieces that install an "assault weapon ban" in state law.
The AWB seems stuck in a time capsule as it lists 19 families of firearms by name ranging from such 1980s classics as the Calico M100, Streetsweeper shotgun, and the rarely encountered Australian Automatic Arms SAR, but for some reason specifically exempts comparable items by name including the "Colt AR-15 Sporter H-BAR rifle." It also bans what it calls "copycat" firearms defined as just about any semi-auto that uses a detachable magazine and has any assaulty features such as a thumbhole stock, forward pistol grip, flash suppressor, or grenade launcher (although statistically zero crimes are committed with grenade launchers), or is a semi-auto centerfire rifle of less than 30-inches in overall length although the federal standard is 26.
Affected by SB 6 would be all magazines capable of holding 17 or more rounds of ammunition, devices that would be labeled a "large-capacity magazine" under the measure, with possession a class B misdemeanor for a first offense, and a class E felony for any subsequent offense.
Gov. Carney, a Democrat, said earlier this month he was looking "forward to seeing these bills on my desk this session."
Biden, who almost weekly for the past two years while in office has urged a federal assault weapon ban, was elated for the news.
"I’m proud that my home state of Delaware—'the First State'—has become one of the very first states in recent weeks to answer that call and take decisive action to reduce gun violence," said Biden in a statement. "Yesterday, the Delaware state legislature passed a historic assault weapons ban, strict limits on high-capacity magazines, and legislation to significantly improve background checks. The legislature has also taken up several other critical gun safety bills, including a bill to make it easier to hold gun manufacturers accountable for how they market and sell weapons of war."
Biden also went on to claim that "These are reasonable measures, supported by the vast majority of Americans."
However, a Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this month found public support for such a ban to be at an all-time low. Support for a ban has fallen to 50 percent, while 45 percent oppose it, and according to the survey, "This is the lowest level of support among registered voters for a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons since February 2013 when the question was first asked by the Quinnipiac University Poll." Four years ago, 67 percent supported a ban and 29 percent opposed the idea.
"Semiautomatic rifles have been around for more than a century," Second Amendment Founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb told Guns.com, “and the popular AR-type rifles have been owned by private citizens for at least 60 years. Their use in crime is statistically minimal, so to blame their availability and demonize their technology is a false flag that borders on fraud."
Indeed, the FBI's crime statistics found that of the average of around 14,556 homicides committed annually for the past decade, rifles typically account for around 314, or about two percent, a figure dwarfed each year by knives, blunt objects, and "personal weapons" such as hands and feet. In 2019, the most recent on record, Delaware suffered 48 homicides according to the FBI in which the weapon was known, with none attributed to a rifle.
Further, AWBs do not necessarily translate into low crime numbers. California, which has had an increasingly stronger ban since 1989, saw more active shooter incidents than any other state in 2021 according to the FBI while ranking 16th highest in the rate of violent crimes per person.
Other states that have adopted AWBs and magazine limits include California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Meanwhile, local restrictions exist in Washington D.C. and parts of Illinois while Colorado, Vermont, and Washington state have magazine capacity limits only.
Banner image: Primary Weapon Systems (PWS) MK1 among the AR-15s in the Guns.com Vault.
