Last week, the Delaware Senate passed gun-control legislation banning “high capacity” magazines and forcing residents in possession of such magazines to sell them to law enforcement officials.
The Delaware Large Capacity Magazine Prohibition Act of 2021 passed without any Republican support through the Democrat-controlled chamber on Thursday.
The bill bans magazines that “accept more than 17 rounds of ammunition.” After the bill is enacted, “possession of large-capacity magazine will be a class B misdemeanor for a first offense and a class E felony for any subsequent offense. Those who possess a prohibited large-capacity magazine when this Act takes effect must, by June 30, 2022, relinquish the large-capacity magazine to a law-enforcement agency in this State. This Act establishes a buyback program for large-capacity magazines, to be overseen by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security.”
Unsurprisingly, buyback programs are extremely ineffective at reducing gun violence. USA Today reported in 2013, “Researchers who have evaluated gun control strategies say buybacks – despite their popularity – are among the least effective ways to reduce gun violence.” The researchers noted that “targeted police patrols, intervention efforts with known criminals and, to a lesser extent, tougher gun laws all work better than buybacks.”
The most effective measure found by researchers, which is more policing, is the exact opposite of what the “defund the police” Democrats have been proposing. These Democrats advocating for gun control seem to be more concerned with restricting rights than reducing gun violence.
