Current events, goings-on in Delaware and anything else of interest here.
 #109918  by Owen
 
Yep. Where this one stops, nobody knows!

A guy at work had an idea. He said buy as big of a folding knife as you can find and have "sportsman" engraved on it. For you know, sporting purposes. :troll:
 #111355  by California_Exile
 
Bump. If you get legislative news emails from DSSA, you will have gotten one last Sunday about SB 209 and SB 210, which are the criminal code rewrite bills. I had some concerns upthread about the legislative reports that led to the bills, one of which is dealt with in the bills, but most of the problems are still there.

The one that's dealt with is that the report was just silent about what happens to the CCDW licensing rules. SB 209 would delete the current rules and SB 210 would reinsert them, as near as I can tell verbatim; so that's a wash, and DSSA's concern there is that if one bill passes without the other, then the licensing regime goes away and concealed carry becomes illegal.

But a lot, maybe all, of the specific problems mentioned up thread are still there, though. The changes would still mean that a knife goes from being just a knife to being a "deadly weapon" when it's 3 inches long when closed, as opposed to current law of 3 inches of blade length. The offense of "carrying a concealed deadly weapon without a license" would become "carrying a concealed deadly weapon or dangerous instrument," and the defense to it stops being possession of a license and starts being "authorized by law."

The "dangerous instrument" language is a big problem. The definition in current law is already broad, but under the new law it will be a felony to carry a concealed "dangerous instrument" except as "authorized by law." Carrying a folding knife in your pocket, even a small one, is potentially legally the same as carrying a concealed pistol without a license.

And the changes to concepts like justification, mistake and excuse create a lot of room for mischief, and they're all still there. This project is the product of a law professor at Penn who is a bleeding heart liberal. For at least a century, liberals haven't exactly been friendly to the idea that decent people have a right to defend their lives, their families and their properties with deadly force, because that's terribly unfair to the criminal scum and it treats the criminal scum as unequal to the decent people. That trend in the legal academy has only gotten worse since the last major rewrite to the Delaware penal code in the 1970s. These bills are yet more incremental pressure toward turning legitimate self-defense into a reason to lock decent people up. These bills are bad news.
 #111356  by NCC
 
I have the same grave concerns, but these are Senate bill. as my lack of representative is Townsend someone else will have to carry my water.

I really don't want to give him any more ideas. Like one passing and the other not!
 #111358  by California_Exile
 
I'm also in Townsend's district, and agree he's hopeless. I'm actually a little surprised that Colin Bonini is a sponsor, but he probably doesn't get the issues.

Anthony Delcollo might be sympathetic -- pro-RKBA and a lawyer. So anyone in the Elsmere / Newport / Hockessin area... Greg Lavelle is at least persuadable on stuff like this.

Besides Townsend and Delcollo, the only other senator I know of who's a lawyer is Stephanie Hansen, but she's not one of us.
 #111359  by NCC
 
You're smarter (and younger!) than me, why don't you run against Townsend? I'll be your boy.
 #111360  by airman1968
 
This bill is just like NJ. They got together to bring their bullshit down here. We have to stop this liberal crap! I even see a slingstot in the bill , definitely NJ got its hands all over this.