After suing the state over three gun laws, the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association’s latest legal challenge targets the state’s high-capacity magazine buyback program.
The group is challenging a package of laws passed in June that increased the age to purchase most firearms from 18 to 21, banned the sale of assault-style weapons, and limited high-capacity magazines.
As part of the measure limiting magazine size to less than 18 rounds of ammunition, the measure signed by Gov. John Carney this summer allowed the state Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security to buy the newly illegal magazines back from gun owners who live in Delaware. The state offered $15 for magazines holding 18 to 30 rounds and $25 for magazines holding 31 or more rounds. Large magazine drums could be turned in for $80.
DSSA President Jeff Hague is challenging the buyback in court, claiming the effort to outlaw the magazines, as well as the laws limiting gun purchases, violates the Delaware Constitution.
“We want the state not to enforce the laws that we feel are unconstitutional,” Hague said. “Leave law-abiding gun owners alone. We have a constitutional right that if we obey the law, and are prohibited by a certain statute from owning a firearm, to have one.”
The language in Delaware’s Constitution protecting gun rights goes a step further than the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, giving Delaware residents “the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state, and for hunting and recreational use.”
Hague argued mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence are not an issue that can be solved by laws against gun possession. Rather, he said those incidents can be reduced by better holding criminals accountable with higher bail costs and longer jail sentences.