We must do more to prevent gun violence in Delaware

3-minute read

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:

1. 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;
2. prohibit firearms, ammunition, and explosives in county government buildings; and
3. 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.