Karl Baker

The News Journal

In December and January, 12,556 federal background checks for Delaware gun purchases.

The amounts are 26 percent from December 2014 and January 2015.

Delaware's rate of gun purchases in 2015 was roughly 25 percent lower than the rate nationwide.

Delaware gun purchases surged in December and January – an increase fueled by nontraditional gun owners seeking protection, firearm sellers and advocates say.

A total of 12,556 federal background checks were conducted for people buying guns in Delaware during the previous two months, according to data from the FBI – a 26 percent jump over December 2014 to January 2015. Gun vendors must submit a background check request to the FBI for the purchase of any firearm.

“Much of that was due to an increase in handgun sales used for personal safety,” said Bob Miller, owner of Miller’s Gun Center in New Castle, who credited recent high-profile mass shootings nationally with driving demand. “There’s a concern (about safety) that’s media-driven.”

The increase rekindles an ongoing debate over whether more guns in a community make people safer. While national and state crime data is inconclusive regarding any trends with gun ownership, more people are turning to guns in Delaware to respond to a perception of increasing insecurity.

“I used to be anti-gun for the longest time,” said Dominique Carpio, a senior at the University of Delaware, who worries about becoming a victim of one of the crimes she frequently hears about in New Castle County. “I just bought my first pistol in November.”

Background checks for firearm purchases more than tripled between January 2006 and January 2016 in Delaware. The state since 2013 has required all gun sales to be subject to federal background checks. Before then, sales between individuals or those conducted online could be carried out without an accompanying federal check.

Those not allowed to own guns include individuals convicted of a felony, a drug charge or a misdemeanor domestic violence crime.

Miller noted that increases in gun purchases are common after high-profile violent crimes and gun control debates that often follow. On Dec. 2, 14 died in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, and one month later President Barack Obama expanded background check requirements for all gun purchases.

Obama last month also announced that he had taken executive action to bolster background checks for firearms. The move came after nine people were killed in a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, and 132 died in a terrorist attack in Paris last fall.

Delaware gun purchases also spiked in December 2012 and January 2013 after a 20-year-old man fatally shot 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

[Editor's note: If you do not see the poll question here, please refresh this page.]

Miller said what is new for the most recent and larger surge is that more business people, such as real estate agents, are now buying guns because of a perception that crime is growing in suburban areas. Federal data does not indicate the gender or profession of gun purchasers.

“They hear about robberies, and the line I always hear is, ‘I never thought it would happen here,’ ” Miller said. “People are carrying their guns to and from work now.”

The number of Delawareans who applied for a permit to be able to carry a concealed weapon while in public more than doubled to 348 in December 2015 from a year before.

Connection between guns, safety

Miller said that more people with guns can cause crime to drop if they are properly trained. Fewer people will break into houses or commit robberies in public areas if they fear for their lives, he said.

Jeffrey Lott, spokesman for the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, said there is no evidence that the number of legally owned guns in Delaware will decrease crime. While the number of firearms purchased during the past decade went up in Delaware, so has the murder rate, he said.

“There’s clear evidence that more guns don’t necessarily make people safer,” said Lott, whose organization is lobbying to change a law that allows gun purchases to proceed without a background check if the process takes more than three days. “We have to focus on keeping guns out of the hands of people who will use them illegally.”

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Delaware’s rate of gun purchases in 2015 was roughly 25 percent lower than the rate nationwide, based on background check data.

After gun purchases began to increase gradually in 2006, the number of Delaware violent crimes decreased 21 percent until 2014, according to the most recent data aggregated by the FBI. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter jumped 35 percent, however.

Delaware State Police Sgt. Richard Bratz said he can’t determine whether more guns in a community will lead to increases or decreases in violent crime. But there is always a concern, he said, when a police officer has to confront someone with a gun, whether they are carrying it legally or not.

“Every time we go to a house, there’s always potential for them to have a weapon,” he said. “We just use caution.”

It is an abundance of caution that drove Carpio to purchase a firearm, she said. She frequently hears about violent crimes in Newark through text alerts sent out by the University of Delaware, and sees a gun as the only way to ensure her safety.

A total of 104 violent crimes occurred in Newark in 2014, according to the FBI, the lowest rate among Delaware’s three largest cities. In Wilmington, which has more than twice the population of Newark, there were 1,174 violent crimes in 2014. In Dover, there were 242.

Though Carpio used to be “anti-gun,” her views gradually changed while at the university and she is now a member of the UD Students for the Second Amendment Club.

“I always get emails and texts about another crime in Newark, and it’s really scary,” she said. “I practice at the (firing) range a lot.”

Fellow students are surprised when they hear that she owns a firearm, she said, but she doesn’t “want to be caught off guard” if someone tries to harm her.

“People are shocked because I’m a woman,” she said. “How else are you supposed to defend yourself?”

Tyler Yzaguirre, president of the Students for the Second Amendment Club, said there are many new student gun owners at the University of Delaware, like Carpio. He points to crime and recent gun control debates for the surge in gun purchases.

“Even at the UD campus, there are assaults,” he said.

Though Carpio owns a firearm, she cannot leave her home with it in a bag, or otherwise hidden. She’s currently applying for a concealed carry permit, she said, but believes the roughly two-month process could be a burden.

“What if it were a situation where I had a crazy stalker,” she said.

In addition to the application paperwork, Carpio must enroll in a safety course from an approved gun trainer to receive her permit.

Phil Parke, a state-authorized gun safety trainer in Wilmington, estimated the number of women passing through his day-long courses increased about 30 percent during the past year. Many of them have expressed similar concerns to Carpio’s, pointing to crime as the reason they want to carry a gun in public.

“There are more mothers and daughters in class,” he said, “and husbands and wives.”

Parke said the content of the classes includes as much training about when not to shoot, as techniques for how to shoot. Students are taught not to act like a superhero while carrying a gun, he said.

“They can’t walk out of here thinking they have a cape on,” Parke said. “Use of a firearm is an end-all last option.”

Beth Parsons, owner of Shooter’s Choice gun store in Dover, also teaches gun safety courses and estimates she has seen 60 percent more women in her classes during the last year. Crime is becoming “more of a reality” in Kent County, she said, and people are afraid they might not be able to buy a gun in the future because of possible future restrictive gun laws.

Delaware’s current gun rules are reasonable, she said. Background checks and gun safety courses are necessary to ensure that responsible people own those deadly weapons, she said.

“If you’re a law-abiding citizen, you shouldn’t have any problem with” the laws, she said.

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

By the numbers

12,556: Federal background checks for Delaware gun purchases in December and January

348: Delaware concealed carry applications sought in December

1,596: Guns reported lost or stolen in Delaware from 2013 to the present.

4,576: Violent crimes committed in Delaware in 2014.