Dear Friend, 

In 2019, I stood before hundreds of Moms Demand Action members and at least as many pro-gun protestors to declare my sponsorship of a Permit to Purchase bill and my co-sponsorship of Assault Weapons and High Capacity Magazine bans. Those bills were never released from committee because the gun lobby had a stranglehold on the General Assembly.  In 2021, after we elected gun-sense candidates in the 2020 mid-terms, my colleagues and I again brought forth a Permit to Purchase bill and a ban on high capacity magazines.  This time, these two crucial gun safety bills passed the Senate.  That was over a year ago.  The magazine bill was gutted by the House and returned to the Senate while the Permit to Purchase bill was stuck in a committee that has yet to release it.  

The US is the only industrialized nation that suffers daily gun violence and weekly mass shootings as a matter of course.  The US is the only country that refuses to curtail access to guns by those who should not have them through federal policies like universal background checks, an assault weapons ban (we had one, but it was allowed to expire in 2004), gun safety training requirements, and red flag laws.  We have left it up to the states to determine their gun laws, and as a result we have clear evidence of what policies work to diminish gun violence.  Delaware has acted to pass some good gun safety laws--we do have red flag laws and safe storage laws, for example.  We also recently passed a ban on ghost guns and an expansion of our law around disarming people who are subjects of Protection from Abuse orders.  

But this is not nearly enough.  The gun lobby will tell you that Delaware has never had a school shooting and that gun laws don't work because criminals don't obey the law.  To the former I say, we want to keep it that way and must do all in our power to do so, and to the latter I say, the evidence proves otherwise.  States like Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland that have permitting laws for gun ownership have seen a reduction in gun violence since those laws went into effect because they reduce the number of straw purchases which, in turn, reduces the number of guns in circulation falling into the hands of the wrong people via the underground market.  Permitting laws do not prohibit gun ownership, they simply require gun buyers to undergo a thorough background check and take a safety training course.  This is common sense.

In the aftermath of two horrifying mass shootings of innocent civilians --children in school and shoppers at the grocery store -- it is my sincerest hope that all of you will continue supporting gun sense candidates and will prevail upon your representatives to pass SB 3 when they return to session the week of June 7th.  

Thank you for your continued friendship and support in this time of grief over innocent lives lost.

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Laura