Delaware Senate leader says he will revive assault weapons ban; bump stock ban signed into law

Karl Baker | The News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Carney on bump stocks, assault weapons and red flags Delaware Gov. John Carney describes gun control bills facing the General Assembly in 2018.

Movement on two key gun-control bills occurred in the Delaware General Assembly on Thursday after weeks of lawmaker jockeying.

Following criticism of his leadership, Senate President Pro Tempore David McBride announced that he would bring a controversial assault weapons ban bill to the Senate floor next week for a vote of the full legislative body.

"It’s plain to anyone paying attention that there is a great deal of public interest in this legislation," said, McBride, D-Hawks Nest. "When an issue like this garners such an extraordinary level of interest and passion, every senator should also have the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to have their positions on the record."

At about the same time, the House passed a bill to ban bump stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a fast rate, and Gov. John Carney quickly signed it into law.

The impending vote announcement on an assault weapons ban comes a day after other top Democrats said Senate Bill 163, which would prohibit the sale of an array of semi-automatic rifles, should be revived.

The bill last week failed to pass out of the Senate Judicial and Community Affairs committee after a key swing vote, Sen. Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, said he believed the measure would violate the Delaware Constitution.

While Democrats on Wednesday said Lavelle would suffer politically for the decision, the northern Delaware Republican blamed McBride.

Lavelle said the Senate leader knowingly placed the legislation into a five-member committee where the Democrats' slim majority was nullified on the issue by a pro-gun lawmaker, Sen. Bruce Ennis, D-Smyrna.

For Democrats, Lavelle said, the assault weapons bill is a "political issue, not a public safety issue."

McBride on Thursday said he chose the judicial committee for the assault weapons legislation "because of where it falls in the Delaware code."

"I believe strongly in the idea that with very few exceptions, the committee process should be objective. That was the case with SB 163, as it has been for every other gun control bill I have assigned," he said.

The most controversial of a litany of gun control bills in front of Delaware lawmakers, Senate Bill 163, would block the sale, transfer or import of about 60 specific makes and models of firearms, including the AR-15 rifle, which was used in the February mass shooting that killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school.

Following McBride's announcement Thursday, Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover, stood and asked if the Senate was changing its rules for the bill.

"It did not receive the votes to get out of committee," Bonini said. "If any issue gets enough press coverage, are we simply going to waive the responsibilities of the committee process?"

Responding to the question, McBride said he will place the bill in front of the full Senate regardless of whether that happens through a new vote in committee or through a suspension of rules.

"What I said was I intend to place Senate Bill 163, as president pro tem, my prerogative, first on the agenda for Tuesday," McBride said. "I'm sorry if that wasn't clear to you, and I'm not sure why there isn't clarity to that."

Bump stocks

Minutes after McBride stood on the Senate floor to make the assault weapons announcement, his colleagues in the House passed the bill to ban bump stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a fast rate.

About an hour later, Gov. John Carney signed it into law.

"At the end of the day, it's the right thing to do for our state," Carney said. Bump stocks "essentially convert a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon, a machine gun, if you will."

The bill had been ping-ponging between the House and Senate for weeks as lawmakers disagreed on the penalty to be imposed on any person found to be in possession for the first time of a bump stock or trigger crank.

Earlier this month, the Delaware Senate voted in favor of an amendment that reduces the penalty to a Class B misdemeanor.

The House on Thursday ultimately opted not to amend the bill further. A total of 12 amendments – or amendments to amendments – had been introduced with the bill.

Eight passed.

Speaker of the House Pete Schwartzkopf said his Democratic colleagues did not change the language again on Thursday "because it's more important to get a bill passed."

A provision within an earlier House version of the bill, which provides $15,000 toward a state-sponsored buy-back program for the devices, remained in the final legislation.

Bans on bumps stocks and trigger cranks have been enacted in multiple states during the past year. The actions were sparked after authorities revealed that bump stocks were attached to 12 weapons found on rifles used by Stephen Paddock, the man who in October committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Police say Paddock killed 58 people and wounded about 500 others in Las Vegas as he shot from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of concertgoers.

Delaware's bill cites the Las Vegas shooting as one reason for the potential new law.

Bump stocks fit onto the shoulder end of a rifle. The shooter holds a finger in front of the trigger instead of squeezing it. To fire, the shooter applies a light but steady forward pressure on the barrel with the supporting arm, which allows the recoil action to fire rounds in rapid succession.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.