Longhurst promised to run the bill in January. Longhurst didn’t run the bill in January. From the News-Journal article:
Despite Delaware House leadership’s pledge to pass gun safety legislation upon lawmakers’ return to Dover in January, a bill to require training and a permit prior to purchase of a handgun hasn’t made it to a vote.
House Democrats in December announced the Appropriations Committee had approved the bill and House Speaker Valerie Longhurst in a Dec. 14 news release reiterated her commitment to getting the legislation passed when the full House reconvened in January.
“For the past decade, we have passed some of the most comprehensive gun safety laws in the country, making Delaware a leader by strengthening our background checks, closing loopholes, banning assault-style firearms and large-capacity magazines, and instituting red flag laws,” Longhurst said in the December news release. “This bill is the next piece of the puzzle to keeping our communities safe and I’m looking forward to bringing permit to purchase to the House floor as soon as we return to session in January.”
Blahblahblah.
The bill had already passed the Senate on May 2, 2023. All D’s had voted for it, all R’s had voted against it. The bill had cleared both the House Judiciary and Appropriations Committees. All that remained was for the Speaker to place it on an Agenda, as it had the votes to pass. The Speaker didn’t.
(1) Creates an application process to obtain a handgun qualified purchaser permit to authorize the purchase of a handgun. While an applicant will incur costs related to fingerprinting and required training, a fee will not be charged to obtain the permit. A holder of a valid concealed carry permit, a qualified law-enforcement officer, and a qualified retired law-enforcement officer are not required to obtain or present a handgun qualified purchaser permit. (2) Prohibits a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer, as well as unlicensed persons, from selling or transferring a handgun to an individual unless the individual has a handgun qualified purchaser permit. (3) Requires that an applicant complete a firearms training course within 5 years before the date of application, similar to what is required by Delaware’s concealed carry permit law. (4) Makes clear that § 904A of Title 24 is not intended to prohibit law-enforcement officials from keeping records. (5) Requires the Department of Safety and Homeland Security to develop and administer a firearms training voucher program for low-income residents to provide low-income residents with a voucher to cover the costs of the firearms training course required under Section 1 of this Act.
You may well ask why didn’t Longhurst run the bill as promised. Here’s what passes for the explanation:
House Democratic spokesperson Jenevieve Worley said legislative leaders plan to run the bill in March when lawmakers return for session.
She said recent inclement weather and uncertainty around Gov. John Carney’s rescheduling of the State of the State address forced the House to remain flexible and keep schedules open.
In other words, she gets paid to lie so that Our PAL Val doesn’t have to. Not that that ever stopped her before. Yes, they lost a day due to inclement weather. Yes, Carney had to postpone his State Of The State until March. That’s it. They had seven legislative days to run the bill. And didn’t. Even if you subtract the three ‘committee’ days, which shouldn’t have prevented Val from keeping her promise, you had four days where the House did run agendas. Everything passed except the one important bill that Longhurst had promised to place on an agenda. That one bill was never placed on an agenda.
As usual, Our PAL Val gave away the game:
Worley stressed the bill is something that will draw a lot of attention, and legislators will want to take their time to get the legislation done right.
In other words, she wants to give the Usual Suspects yet another chance to weaken the bill. The legislation was already done right. The original bill was introduced on April 19. The bill was considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 26. A substitute, that addressed concerns raised in committee, was introduced on May 2. The bill passed the Senate on May 2. It was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee on May 3 and released from the committee on May 17. Since money to carry out the bill had already been included in the Budget Bill, it could have directly gone to the Ready List. However, Speaker Pete dumped it into Lumpy Carson’s Appropriations Committee, where it languished until session ended.
The bill was finally released from Appropriations on December 14, at which time Longhurst promised it would be run in January. It wasn’t. One or both of these things is possible:
Val delayed the bill so that the pro-gun nuts could further weaken it.
Val is incompetent.
A distinction without a difference.