Delaware Gun Rights firing back at lobbying efforts for another assault weapons ban | State

Delaware Gun Rights is firing back at lobbying efforts underway by the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, who’s calling on lawmakers to introduce another ban on assault weapons next session.

The Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence recently published a brochure that stated one of their legislative goals for the upcoming session is to ban assault weapons.

Last session, legislation that would have imposed a ban on assault weapons was struck down when lawmakers voted against suspending the rules in the Senate to hold a floor debate after the bill failed to make it out of committee.

Mitch Denham, president of Delaware Gun Rights, said another attempt at a ban is definitely on the horizon and that the best way to prevent such a bill from passing would be to flip party control in the Senate.

“They’re going to attempt to do it again,” Denham said. “They’re going to continue to pursue that until they get it. At this current point in time we’re working on preventative measures – trying to get the Senate flipped.”

Denham said “if we can get Republican control of the Senate that’ll give one body Republican control and the other body (House) gets Democratic control, and then everything becomes balanced. At that point, if the democrats want to push an agenda, they’ve got to fear for the Senate to make that happen.”

“What I’m suggesting is that people get out and vote some of these bad senators out of their seats, but in the event that we don’t flip the Senate what we’re going to do is what we’ve been doing, which is our emails, phone calls, showing up, making sure our voices are heard and known, putting a couple hundred people in Legislative Hall at any given moment is what we’re good at,” Denham concluded. “That’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

Delaware 105.9 reached out to the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, who provided a statement about their brochure that includes an outline of how lawmakers voted on several pieces of gun control legislation. 

“The Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence provides this information as a reference for all Delawareans who want to know how their representatives voted on common sense gun legislation in this past session. It’s notable, and clear to see in the guide, that the General Assembly voted with unanimous consent on several of those bills, and others passed with overwhelming majorities. We hope to provide more information before the general election that will help Delawareans make an informed choice at the polls this November.”     

Last year’s proposal to ban assault weapons, Senate Bill 163, failed to make it out of committee. Many considered it to be in part due to the overwhelming lobbying efforts of Delaware Gun Rights, and fellow gun rights activists, who showed up in droves at Legislative Hall all the way up until the bill was defeated.