Delaware
We must do more to prevent gun violence in Delaware
3-minute read
Flatbed used to steal guns found across the road from crime scene
New Castle County investigators have found the flatbed truck used to break into a gun shop early Monday and steal multiple firearms.
On Memorial Day at around 1:50 a.m., a stolen flatbed truck backed into the front door of Miller’s Gun Store. The thieves made out with a cache of firearms, many of which have likely been sold on the illicit market. This isn’t the first time a gun store has been robbed in New Castle County. In 2020, five individuals stole 35 firearms from the American Sportsman gun store in Stanton. Last year, one woman admitted she stole more than half a million rounds of ammunition from a local Cabela’s to sell on the illicit market.
Stolen firearms and ammunition are making our communities less safe. Stolen guns are nine times more likely to be used in a crime than legally purchased guns, according to a study from UC Davis. Our first responders are confronting the horrific aftermath of gun violence. Last year, New Castle County Paramedics responded to 120 gunshot victims. 123 Delawareans are killed by guns and 305 are wounded in an average year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Gun violence is a public health epidemic that impacts every level of society in America. For that reason, every elected official at every level of government should embrace commonsense solutions to make our communities safer. I applaud state Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, Gov. John Carney and all the advocates who helped make the permit-to-purchase bill become law. We need to build on this success and continue to pass additional gun safety laws at every level of government.
Gun violence should not be a left or right issue. That’s why I worked with a bipartisan group of councilmembers, Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick, Councilman Bill Bell and Councilman Timothy Sheldon, along with the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, March For Our Lives, and other gun safety advocates to propose the New Castle County Gun Safety Package. This package of 3 ordinances will leverage our county land use authority and state law to:
- enhance security at gun stores by requiring they implement best security practices to protect against theft, including video surveillance, security alarms, bars, security screens, and physical barriers on doors and windows, and bollards and other physical barriers to prevent the use of motor vehicles to breach all buildings where firearms are stored;
- prohibit firearms, ammunition, and explosives in county government buildings; and
- restrict where future firearm retail businesses can be located within the county. Specifically, they will not be permitted within 500 ft of residential areas, 1,000 ft of schools, daycares, or government parks, and 1,500 ft of another firearm retail establishment.
These ordinances will help to make it harder for criminals to steal guns from gun stores and sell them on the illicit market, make our government buildings safer for county employees and members of the public, and ensure that new gun stores can’t be located next to residential communities, daycares, schools, government parks, or another gun store. This last ordinance is important because it will help prevent additional gun stores in sensitive areas and could help reduce gun dealer density. Increases in gun dealer density have led to increases in gun homicides and those effects are more pronounced in Black communities.
I want to thank County Council for passing the first two gun safety ordinances, focused on enhancing security at gun stores and prohibiting guns in county facilities. I will proudly sign both ordinances into law. Ordinance 24-084, which will restrict where future gun stores can be located, will be heard by the PLUS committee and Planning Board before it comes to County Council for discussion and a vote in the Fall.
Local governments need to be part of the solution for gun safety, and we could do more if the state would allow it. Unfortunately, Delaware has preemption laws, which severely limit local governments’ ability to regulate guns. New Castle County, Wilmington, or any local government ought to be able to enact additional gun safety laws to better protect our communities. Delaware should eliminate the preemption laws so local governments can do more to help make our communities safer. Removing the preemption laws would only allow local governments to add more gun safety statutes. Importantly, no local government would be able to roll back the state’s existing gun safety laws.
Guns are now the leading cause of death for children in this country. And in some U.S. zip codes, young men face greater risk of firearm death than those deployed to war. As a nation, we have failed to adequately address this epidemic of violence. Delaware and New Castle County have taken important steps to improve gun safety and make our communities safer. But to end the epidemic of gun violence, we need to continue to enact commonsense gun safety laws at every level of government.
Matt Meyer is New Castle County Executive.
Trump also started the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement Monday and ordered agency heads to review all regulations that restrict “consumer choice” of appliances. Experts have said Biden-era energy efficiency standards for appliances would be difficult for the new administration to reverse.
While Biden’s expanded tax credits for home electrification and energy efficiency under the Inflation Reduction Act have disproportionately benefited wealthy households, the home energy rebate programs are expected to help low- to moderate-income households afford home improvements that will reduce their energy bills. In Philadelphia, Black, Hispanic and low-income residents spend more of their income on energy costs than households overall.
“These rebates are really important because they help working families in the United States access dollars that help lower the cost of these better, more efficient machines that are going to save them money on their energy bills,” said Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America, a national nonprofit that promotes electrification and related government rebates and tax credits.
States design their rebate programs within guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Energy under the Biden Administration, which require some of the money be reserved for families under certain income thresholds.
Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey all plan to launch their rebate programs this year, with Pennsylvania aiming for rollout of some rebates in “early 2025.”
The three states plan to offer all types of rebates available under the federal program, including rebates for appliances, home electrification infrastructure and energy-saving home retrofits. Pennsylvania plans to restrict the energy-saving home retrofit rebates to multifamily housing.
Income eligibility requirements for some of the rebates will vary by state, but all three states plan to restrict appliance rebates to households earning no more than 150% of area median income.
It’s crucial that the rebates reach low-income neighborhoods with high rates of energy poverty, said Pamela Darville, a volunteer with POWER Interfaith who helps lead the organization’s climate justice and jobs team. She wants to see Pennsylvania do extensive outreach about the programs in these communities, make the application user-friendly and available in multiple languages, partner with community-based organizations to find eligible applicants, offer long-term maintenance assistance and ensure the rebates reduce costs up front, so there’s no need for families to wait to be reimbursed.
“Those are just some of the things that we think will lay the foundation for equitable rollout by the state,” Darville said. “We all want energy-efficient appliances, but some of us just can’t afford it.”
WILMINGTON – Today, in his first executive action as Governor of Delaware, Governor Matt Meyer signed Executive Order #1, ordering state agencies to prioritize the development of youth apprenticeship programs across the state.
Led by the Delaware Department of Education, Executive Order #1 establishes a statewide working group consisting of at least 15 members from across labor, educational, and nongovernmental sectors, with the ultimate goal of developing proposed processes and policies to expand youth apprenticeships and workforce development across the state.
“If we’re serious about educating our kids, then we need to be serious about the opportunities we want them to have,” said Governor Meyer. “Workforce development programs for youth are integral to growing Delaware’s economy in a way that all families can prosper. This executive order aims to improve access to apprenticeships so we can better prioritize the needs of working families, invest in our children’s futures, and ensure we’re building an efficient and sustainable 21st-century economy.”
Read the Full Executive Order Here.
Governor Meyer is committed to using the full power of his office to bring meaningful change to Delaware. The order will implement immediate, actionable measures that aim to reform how we prepare our kids for the jobs of tomorrow. By bringing stakeholders from across Delaware to the table, Governor Meyer is laying the foundation for a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous Delaware for generations to come.
For any questions or to schedule a one-on-one interview with Governor-elect Meyer, please contact Mila Myles at mila.myles@delaware.gov.
About Delaware Governor Matt Meyer
Governor Matt Meyer is a former public school math teacher and small business owner who served as New Castle County Executive from 2017 through January 2025. As the leader of Delaware’s largest local government, Matt proved that government can still work for the people– delivering real results for real people and making real progress for Delaware’s working families. Governor Meyer aims to bring that same result-driven leadership to the state by creating an effective government that reflects our values and priorities.
From Wilmington to Kenya and Iraq: Growing up in Delaware, Matt attended schools in the Brandywine School District, followed by Wilmington Friends School, and then studied Computer Science & Political Science at Brown University. He then moved to Nairobi, Kenya, where he learned Swahili and created Ecosandals, a recycled footwear company that sold environmentally friendly footwear to customers in 17 countries on five continents. Matt subsequently spent 12 months in Mosul, Iraq, as a diplomat embedded with the United States Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.
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Related Topics: executive order, Governor Matt Meyer
Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.
Here you can subscribe to future news updates.
WILMINGTON – Today, in his first executive action as Governor of Delaware, Governor Matt Meyer signed Executive Order #1, ordering state agencies to prioritize the development of youth apprenticeship programs across the state.
Led by the Delaware Department of Education, Executive Order #1 establishes a statewide working group consisting of at least 15 members from across labor, educational, and nongovernmental sectors, with the ultimate goal of developing proposed processes and policies to expand youth apprenticeships and workforce development across the state.
“If we’re serious about educating our kids, then we need to be serious about the opportunities we want them to have,” said Governor Meyer. “Workforce development programs for youth are integral to growing Delaware’s economy in a way that all families can prosper. This executive order aims to improve access to apprenticeships so we can better prioritize the needs of working families, invest in our children’s futures, and ensure we’re building an efficient and sustainable 21st-century economy.”
Read the Full Executive Order Here.
Governor Meyer is committed to using the full power of his office to bring meaningful change to Delaware. The order will implement immediate, actionable measures that aim to reform how we prepare our kids for the jobs of tomorrow. By bringing stakeholders from across Delaware to the table, Governor Meyer is laying the foundation for a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous Delaware for generations to come.
For any questions or to schedule a one-on-one interview with Governor-elect Meyer, please contact Mila Myles at mila.myles@delaware.gov.
About Delaware Governor Matt Meyer
Governor Matt Meyer is a former public school math teacher and small business owner who served as New Castle County Executive from 2017 through January 2025. As the leader of Delaware’s largest local government, Matt proved that government can still work for the people– delivering real results for real people and making real progress for Delaware’s working families. Governor Meyer aims to bring that same result-driven leadership to the state by creating an effective government that reflects our values and priorities.
From Wilmington to Kenya and Iraq: Growing up in Delaware, Matt attended schools in the Brandywine School District, followed by Wilmington Friends School, and then studied Computer Science & Political Science at Brown University. He then moved to Nairobi, Kenya, where he learned Swahili and created Ecosandals, a recycled footwear company that sold environmentally friendly footwear to customers in 17 countries on five continents. Matt subsequently spent 12 months in Mosul, Iraq, as a diplomat embedded with the United States Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.
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Related Topics: executive order, Governor Matt Meyer
Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.
Here you can subscribe to future news updates.
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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Delaware is set to welcome its 76th governor Tuesday. Democrat Matt Meyer is being sworn in at Delaware State University in Dover. State Sen. Kyle Evans Gay will become his lieutenant governor.
The ceremony was moved indoors amid dangerously cold temperatures.
Meyer was New Castle County executive from 2017 to 2025. He won the September Democratic primary for governor against Gov. Bethany Hall-Long and former state environmental chief Collin O’Mara, then beat former Republican House Minority Leader Mike Ramone in last year’s general election. Gay came out ahead of former Republican state Rep. Ruth Briggs King in November.
Hall-Long, the state’s lieutenant governor for the past eight years, assumed the position as Delaware’s top executive for a two-week stint after former Gov. John Carney resigned early to become the mayor of Wilmington on Jan. 7. Both were term-limited in their previous roles.
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