Delaware’s Gun-Grabber Community Wants a Special Session to Divert Even More Tax Dollars to Restricting Second Amendment Rights

The state of Delaware has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country. But don’t make the mistake of believing that distinction means the state is safe from criminal gun misuse.

The national gun control activist group Giffords, named after former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), awarded the state an A- grade on its recent gun control scorecard. Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control organization funded by billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ranks The First State as #10 on its national ranking of states with restrictive gun laws.

If there’s a gun control law that national anti-Second Amendment activists are looking for, it’s likely already law in Delaware. That might lead some to think Delaware has solved the “gun violence problem” and that its residents are safe. That would be terribly mistaken.

Recent reporting by the Delaware News Journal revealed the number of minors who have been shot this year has nearly doubled when compared to the same time period last year. According to the report, the number of homicide victims has remained relatively unchanged, but shootings have ticked up year-over-year.

Gun control proponents aren’t looking for new answers. They’re just rehashing the same old ineffective ones.

Preaching to the Gun-Grabbing Choir

The Delaware-based gun control group End Community Violence Now is using the new report from News Journal to call on the state’s legislature to hold a taxpayer-funded special legislative session to send even more gun control laws to Gov. Matt Meyer’s desk.

“Every day we wait to act, another young life is put at risk,” ECVN Executive Director Lauren Footman stated while calling for the special session. “Delaware’s young people deserve more than promises, they deserve action, investment, and leaders who are willing to do everything possible to protect them.”

Joining Footman was Tarria Stanley, the legislative director at the gun control group Community Justice. Stanley added, “A special session is an opportunity to move beyond intentions and take meaningful action that equips communities with the resources they need to save lives.”

But Delaware has some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws already on its books. The state recently enacted a handgun permit-to-purchase law that makes it extremely difficult, costly, and burdensome for a regular law-abiding citizen to acquire a common handgun. Delaware has a so-called “red flag” law that allows firearms to be confiscated with little due process protections for the accused.

The First State has unconstitutional mandatory firearm storage laws, unconstitutional restrictions on various modern sporting rifles — the most popular selling semiautomatic rifles in the country — and the state already prohibits “machinegun conversion devices”, the already-illegal attachment that allows a criminal to turn a lawful semiautomatic firearm into an illegal automatic one. NSSF reminds gunowners to remain on the Right Side of Legal.

If there’s a gun control idea out there, it’s more than likely already law in Delaware. So the calls for using taxpayer dollars for yet more Second Amendment restrictions comes at a particularly noteworthy time. Across the country, violent crime — including criminal misuse of firearms and murder — is at historic, 125-year lows. Yet in Delaware, as the News Journal report suggests, criminal misuse of guns is still a problem.

The activist groups calling for even more gun control are only preaching to the anti-gun choir.

More Taxpayer Dollars, Please

So, what is it that ECVN is now demanding from Delaware lawmakers? They want even more taxpayer funds to go towards the operation of the state’s new Office of Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety. The blueprint for that office likely came down from the now-defunct White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention established during the former Biden administration. That outfit was run by a who’s-who of gun control staffers carrying out the Biden administration’s gun control regime, including providing states with a model plan for them to set up their own individual state-level, taxpayer-funded offices. Delaware’s office was created in 2025.

Now ECVN is complaining that the state’s gun violence prevention office wasn’t funded adequately enough.

“We’re asking state leaders to use a special session to hear from people affected by gun violence and consider additional investments in the state office and community-based violence prevention organizations,” the group stated. In usual gun control group mission creep, ECVN also recommends using the Marijuana Reinvestment Fund and Rural Health Transformation Fund to help support the office during fiscal year 2028.

Oh, and by the way, this is all in addition to the $5 million in additional “state investment” funding, i.e., taxpayer funds, ECVN is requesting for their own for “community-based organizations and the prioritization of data infrastructure, to aid in addressing and reporting on crime in Delaware.”

Different Approach

One remarkable approach that has proven effective in reducing crime elsewhere is to simply lock criminals away and punish wrongdoers for the crimes they commit, instead of letting them back out on the streets.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings faced backlash over her approach to fulfilling the state’s top law enforcement office. Recently, Delaware had the second highest rate of recidivism — prisoners reoffending after being release from prison. One recent example under AG Jennings’ watch included a Townsend, Delaware, man who was stopped by police after a car accident. Crystal methamphetamine was found in the car, along with a loaded handgun, even though he was a prohibited person. That meant he was not legally allowed to possess a firearm. Despite the car accident, the illegal drugs and the illegal gun possession, the man was arraigned in court and released on his own recognizance.

This is just one incident, but the high rate on recidivism and statistics on rising gun crimes in Delaware are a troubling pattern.

Adding stricter gun control laws on the backs of law-abiding citizens isn’t going to stop criminals from breaking those laws to commit acts of violence. That track record is clear in The First State. Instead of activist groups pushing for more taxpayer-funded gun control, Delaware lawmakers should focus on holding criminals accountable for their crimes to the fullest extent of the law. Delawareans should have the ability to exercise their constitutional rights to defend themselves.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.