General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, March 7, 2024

Today’s Big Story:

In The House, ‘Permit To Purchase’=Permit To Weaken Permit To Purchase Bill.

Courtesy of Speaker ‘Our PAL Val’ and her leadership henchpersons.  In this case, ‘House Majority Leader’ Melissa Minor-Brown is doing the honors for her incompetent boss and the pro-gun contingent.  SS1/SB 2, the ‘Permit To Purchase’ bill, passed the Senate on May 2, 2023 on a straight party vote of 15-6.  It could have, and should have, been worked in the House during the remaining two months of session, but wasn’t.  Why?  Because the Speaker assigned the bill to the Appropriations Committee even though funding for the bill had already been provided in the FY ’24 budget.  In other words, it was assigned to Appropriations for the specific purpose of delaying consideration.  It was finally released from committee on, wait for it, December 14, 2023.

It could have, and should have, been worked in the House during January.  But it wasn’t, even though the bill had been released from committee and merely needed the Speaker to place it on an agenda. It is now clear that Longhurst’s plan is/was to delay and to weaken.  With a pathetic amendment from the aforementioned Minor-Brown.  But, I digress.

For those who are unfamiliar with SS1/SB 2, it is a modest attempt to ensure that handguns don’t fall into the hands of those unfit to use them.  Specifically:

“(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.”

The original bill was already modified at the behest of the gun lobby.  Specifically, ‘This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 2 as follows: (1) By increasing the time a handgun qualified purchaser permit is valid from 180 days to 1 year. (2) By requiring the Superior Court to schedule the de novo hearing within 15 days of the filing of the appeal rather than to hold the hearing within 21 days of the filing of the appeal. (3) By extending the implementation timeline of Sections 1 and 5 of this Act from a maximum of 6 months from the date of the Act’s enactment to a maximum of 18 months from the date of the Act’s enactment.’  In other words, action in the Senate has already delayed and weakened the implementation of the bill.

Which brings us to House Amendment 2.  The amendment ‘(e)xtends from 1 year to 2 years the length of time a handgun qualified purchaser permit is valid from the date of issue’.  Note that the Senate substitute had already extended the time from 180 days to one year, which sure seems reasonable to me.  It also ‘(r)emoves the firearms training course voucher program’, presumably because only people with enough money should have guns.

Riddle me this:  Why shouldn’t the House simply run the Senate bill as is?  If there are gun enthusiasts who can’t support the bill without the amendment, smoke ’em out.  I’ll answer my own question: Val Longhurst has fucked up gun control legislation before by giving in to the demands of the gun lobby. She’s merely doing it again.

Ho-kay.  Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  Both of Rep. Baumbach’s bills supporting state retirees cleared the House Administration Committee.  Could we see them on an agenda next week?  I wonder if Carney will have the chutzpah to have either Claire Dematteis or Cerron Cade take the floor to testify against them.  I wonder if Longhurst will call previous reform opponent Bethany Hall-Long to the floor to wax rhapsodic on their behalf.  I just want to know one thing:  Will Carney promise not to veto these bills should they reach his desk?

There’s one other good bill on today’s House Agenda.  HB 263 (Dorsey Walker) ‘prohibits local education agencies and charter schools from prohibiting a student from participating in a school sponsored extracurricular activity on the basis the student has an outstanding debt for unpaid school meals.’  Granted, not as good as providing meals to students, but a good bill nonetheless.

Only one bill on the Senate Agenda, and it looks like a narrowly-crafted bill addressing computer crimes.  Meaning, I’m totally unqualified to talk about it.

Meaning, I’m done–until next week.