HB 35 Background Check Debate [UPDATE]: Bill Passes 13-8!!!
For the last hour, the background check bill debate has been underway in the Delaware Senate. Thanks to WDEL’s Amy Cherry, here is her tweet reports about the debate, which I will update below in the comments as she posts them (the tweets below are listed from most recent to less recent):
Sen. Lawson’s request to table the background checks bill fails in a vote 15-6. #NetDE #govDE
2m
Sen. Lawson gets applause for requesting the background checks bill be tabled because it’s “damning” the law abiding citizen. #NetDE #GovDE
CORRECTION: Sen. Venables goes off topic discussing school safety at background checks debate. #problemswithlisteningtothestream
15m
Sen. Lawson says he would support a tax increase to add safety to schools. This debate is about background checks. #NetDE #govDE
39m
Sen. Lawson notes domestic violence act, but no conviction can bar a person from purchasing a gun, but not from possessing a gun. #NetDE
39m
Q: Can a person be prohibited from purchasing a gun, but not prohibited from possessing one? Markell’s lawyer doesn’t know. #NetDE
40m
Markell’s laweyer: the average background checks takes 5 minutes, and no citizens is more than 10 min. away from a gun dealer. #NetDE
42m
Dealer could have license suspended for 30 days if they fail to conduct a background check on a private gun sale. #NetDE #govDE
47m
Sen. Gary Simpson: “It’s strange we need a photo ID for a background check but not to vote in #Delaware.” #NetDE #GovDE
54m
Background checks bill debate underway in the #Delaware Senate. #NetDE #GovDE
I will note that Lawson’s motion to table the vote failed 15-6. I would love to know who voted what on that as it might be a preview of the final vote.
Sen. Simpson offers an amendment to background checks bill that would put first offenses before Court of Common Pleas. #NetDE #govDE
From WDEL: Ernie Lopez will vote for the bill. I have to believe that the bill passes then.
Sen. Lawson says the background checks bill compares law abiding citizens to pedophiles. #NetDE #GovDE
Simpson’s Amendment 1 to background checks bill FAILS: 13-7, 1 not voting
LOL at Lawson. He is getting unhinged, which means he is losing.
My guess at a Whip Count:
Ayes (9):
Patricia M. Blevins
Margaret Rose Henry
Ernesto B. Lopez
Robert I. Marshall
Harris B. McDowell
Karen E. Peterson
Nicole Poore
David P. Sokola
Bryan Townsend
Nays (5):
Colin R. J. Bonini
Gerald W. Hocker
David G. Lawson
F. Gary Simpson
Brian Pettyjohn
Unknown (7):
Brian J. Bushweller
Catherine Cloutier
Bruce C. Ennis
Bethany A. Hall-Long
Gregory F. Lavelle
David B. McBride
Robert L. Venables Sr.
Sen. Marshall says Lawson’s claim is ridiculous –teachers are subject to FBI background checks. #NetDE #govDE
Lopez, after being quiet most of this debate, is now speaking in support of the bill on the Senate floor. #NetDE #govDE
Oh wow. You know you’re losing it when you’re reduced to playing the scary pedophile card.
Sen. Bonini says there’s no foundation of trust for those concerned that the background checks bill violates 2nd Amendment. #NetDE #govDE
Whatever that is supposed to mean.
“Where we’re going is not a place most of us want to go,” says Sen. Bonini regarding the background checks legislation. #NetDE
Well, I am sorry Bonini, but your party is in the minority and you lost the last election. So naturally the majority is going to take you to places you do not want to go.
And Bonini, 88% of Delawareans want to go to that place you don’t. Who the hell are you to say no to 88% of your state?
This is the perennially math-challenged Bonini, remember.
Final vote expected soon per WBOC.
The Motion to table bill failed as I noted above. Here is the roll call on that vote (with no being good):
Blevins N
Hocker Y
Peterson N
Bonini Y
Lavelle Y
Pettyjohn Y
Bushweller N
Lawson Y
Poore N
Cloutier N
Lopez N
Simpson Y
Ennis N
Marshall N
Sokola N
Hall-Long N
McBride N
Townsend N
Henry N
McDowell N
Venables Y
It is clear that the yes votes are definite No votes on the final bill, so we can count Venables, Lawson, Hocker, Simpson, Pettyjohn, Bonini and Lavelle as nos, which makes 7 no votes at least.
Sen. Hocker, a gun dealer: this bill doesn’t close a loophole b/c you can’t buy a gun at a gun show w/o going through a gun dealer. #NetDE
Which is false.
LOL at Hocker thinking he can be Governor in 2016.
Senator McBride says #SandyHook changed everything. No more status quo. 4/18 is a new day, the day #Delaware said “enough is enough.” #NetDE
By my count, McBride makes 10 yes votes. Need one more.
I’m writing Senator Townsend in for Governor in 2016, he is amazing and rational. Can Senator Peterson pick all of the candidates for 2014, she’s done a Hell of a job so far.
Lawson said making the Amish have background checks would compare the law abiding Amish to pedophiles, not you and me.
Updated WHIP count (my guess):
Ayes (10):
Patricia M. Blevins
Margaret Rose Henry
Ernesto B. Lopez
Robert I. Marshall
Harris B. McDowell
Karen E. Peterson
Nicole Poore
David P. Sokola
Bryan Townsend
David B. McBride
Nays (7):
Colin R. J. Bonini
Gerald W. Hocker
David G. Lawson
F. Gary Simpson
Brian Pettyjohn
Robert L. Venables Sr.
Gregory F. Lavelle
Unknown (4):
Brian J. Bushweller
Catherine Cloutier
Bruce C. Ennis
Bethany A. Hall-Long
It is down to these four:
Brian J. Bushweller
Catherine Cloutier
Bruce C. Ennis
Bethany A. Hall-Long
And realistically we can only count on Hall-Long, and since she is in the leadership… you would think she votes yes. If she doesn’t, we will be forced to defeat her in the next election a la Deluca.
Sen. Lawson: “We have enough laws in the book. Let’s prosecute the laws we have.” #NetDE #govDE
Bushweller, Cloutier, Hall Long all Yes, it passes.
“Vote yes for sanity and safety for all. The stronger gun laws the less violence there will be,” says Sen. McBride #NetDE
BILL PASSES 13-8.
DD it’s done, it passed. Bushweller, Cloutier, Hall Long voted Yes.
Bushweller, Hall-Long, Cloutier all vote yes. I am guessing Ennis voted no. I will post the final vote count in a second.
Thanks Anon.
Since there were no Amendments added, this bill goes on to the Governor for his signature.
Blevins Y
Peterson Y
Bushweller Y
Poore Y
Cloutier Y
Lopez Y
Marshall Y
Sokola Y
Hall-Long Y
McBride Y
Townsend Y
Henry Y
McDowell Y
Hocker N
Bonini N
Lavelle N
Pettyjohn N
Lawson N
Simpson N
Ennis N
Venables N
Nice job. Thank goodness for some common sense!
“In a statement, Lopez says the bill doesn’t prevent law abiding citizens from getting a gun and it doesn’t violate anyone’s Second Amendment rights.”
The far right here in Sussex County must be apolectic over this. Who’d a thunk a reasonable Republican in Sussex County! Is this the start of the GOPs return from the fringe or is Ernie just one of them RINOs who will get his comeuppance at election time?
We will probably see a billed filed prior to 6/30 demanding Sussex be allowed to secede from Delaware. LOL.
This bill does absolutely nothing. So I can give a gun to my spouse, who can give it to her sister, who can give it to her husband, who can give it to his brother whom Ive never met. It passed with 11 amendments from the House. The NRA wins again. This bill is watered down.
The only thing I got out of the “realist” message is that realist is a guy.
DAL, if you wanted a bill with teeth, there should have been ZERO amendments. Again you guys had a joygasm over this but it does nothing with all the NRA amendments. They won.
Realist,
“Nothing” is an absolute term. C’mon, even you have to admit after the bill is signed all it’s going to take is ONE denied sale to someone not allowed to buy a gun will mean the law is a success.
Sometimes the optics of a bill is just as important as the bill itself. While there are too many exemptions, it’s a small step. I would rather incremental change than no change at all. I recognize that revolution gets one there quicker, but evolution is less chaotic.
Just simply getting past the hurdle that somehow a background check infringes on a right is an achievement. And when there are no black helicopters landing in Delaware and federal troops swarming to take away people’s guns, it’s another step towards a return to sanity.
Evolution may suck, but the universe wasn’t created in a day, or even 6 days!
And realist, it would be wise particularly after seeing the movie Lincoln,to realize the Emancipation Proclamation was an extremely watered down bill as well.
Just like that bill, a win is a win and we’ll take it… if we find it needs tweaking, we’ll tweak it… either forward as we did in the 13th Amendment, or backwards as we did after the 18th when we found it didn’t work.
But what is most promising is that perhaps we are losing the divisive partisan nature that has existed in Delaware politics beginning with and continuing ever since the ascension of Charlie Copeland.
Perhaps we are back to where both sides feel free to vote their conscious and caucus be damned. Especially among the Republican Party of old…
If I decide to ignore the law, who is going to stop me?
And after I have exercised my God-given right to do so, by what means will you know what I did? And in the exceedingly unlikely event that you find out what I did, and that will certainly be after the fact, possibly a very long time afterward, what do you imagine you will be able to do about it? Realist has only begun to scratch the surface of what’s going on with this bill. I am opposed to the bill, and I will not obey it, and I swear that you will not be able to do anything about it… not before, not after, not ever. I am so sure of the truth of what I say that I don’t really much care whether this law passed or not. It’s just words on paper. I see pieces of paper with words on them blowing around on shopping center parking lots pretty regularly. Go ahead and tighten the language to eliminate the exceptions. That’s when you will get the reality check that you obviously need.
Wow. What do you mean by: you will get the reality check that you obviously need.
Mark: Since there is no god, he, she or it cannot give you any rights.
I’m surprised that these tea baggers like Mark don’t really understand the phrase “WE THE PEOPLE”.
God didn’t give you your Constitutional rights, mark, WE THE PEOPLE did. Get it? Your God, who ever that may be, is meaningless when it comes to what is and what is not Constitutional.
The United States of America is a land that obeys MAN’S LAW, if you want to live in a country that abides by God’s law, go to Iran.
BTW, I don’t recall any Biblical passages that give freaks like you the right to bear arms, either, so you’re just wrong all the way around.
Pandora, “wow” is right, that comment was uber creepy. Creepier than thinking that owning guns is a “God given right.”