Proposed Delaware legislation targets firearm dealers contributing to illegal gun trafficking

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Proposed legislation regulating Delaware firearm dealers aims to crack down on illegal or reckless retail practices fueling the state’s illegal gun market.

Senate Bill 300, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola, D-Newark, would bolster Delaware’s oversight of firearm dealers by implementing an enhanced licensing system with stricter inspection, reporting and security requirements.

“This legislation is necessary,” he said. “Strict licensing standards will lower the probability of gun violence and gun trafficking and hold our firearm dealers accountable for potentially reckless business practices.”

Straw purchases, where a person with a clean record buys a firearm for someone not legally allowed to have one, continue to be a problem in Delaware despite being outlawed in 2018.

Dover resident Jordan Harmon, 25, was sentenced in April 2024 to three years in prison for buying 19 semiautomatic pistols in straw purchases.

Josh Scharff, general counsel for the gun control nonprofit group Brady, said that across the U.S., a minority of gun dealers supply a disproportionate amount of guns later used in a crime.

Marianna Mitchem, formerly with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and now with Everytown for Gun Safety, said 66% of the more than 1,400 crime guns recovered in Delaware in 2023 were originally purchased at in-state gun stores. The weapons were either used in a crime, found at the scene of a crime, or the purchase or possession of the gun itself was illegal.

“You cannot go and blame another state for running guns up to your state,” she said. “It’s coming from within your state, which is, in a way, a good thing, because you can solve that problem. You can hold those dealers accountable,” said Mitchem.

Under Sokola’s proposal, people who sell or transfer more than 10 firearms in a year must be state-licensed. Firearm retailers must complete an application to be developed by the Delaware State Police. Sellers would pay a licensing fee and submit proof of a federal firearms license, liability insurance and personal identification.

The legislation would expand existing background check requirements to contractors and volunteers and would add a training course for licensees, their employees and “responsible persons,” defined as people setting policy for businesses that sell firearms.

Sokola’s bill would mandate that businesses have a functioning security alarm system and a digital surveillance system that tracks entrances and exits. Delaware State Police would also be tasked with conducting on-site inspections.

The state of Delaware has cracked down in the past on stores it has accused of having lax security. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has been locked in a legal fight with the retailer Cabela’s since late 2022 after law enforcement officers arrested a shoplifter at its Newark store who claimed to have stolen about 500,000 rounds of ammunition from the sales floor. Investigators said the store was seen as an easy place to pilfer ammunition, with some rounds ending up in the hands of drug dealers and gangs.

Cabela’s could face legal consequences if it’s found that the store tolerated shoplifting. A 2022 state law eliminated firearms dealers’ immunity from liability if they were negligent in how they conducted their business. The law also allows civil lawsuits against dealers who “knowingly or recklessly create, maintain, or contribute to a public nuisance” with a “firearm-related product.”

Jennings’ office said the investigation against Cabela’s is ongoing.

House sponsor state Rep. Mara Gorman said the state knows who the bad actors are.

“We do, in fact, know which dealers are the ones contributing the most mayhem to our communities, and that they’re doing it again and again,” she said. “So by increasing our ability to regulate these dealers and provide oversight, we will actually be holding accountable the dealers that we know are the most reckless.”

Sokola said he’s unsure what the changes would cost taxpayers. He said revenue from the licensing fees are unlikely to cover the full price of the bill’s implementation.