…Since going into effect in November, statewide computer systems that are needed to enforce Delaware’s permit to purchase firearms law – which requires prospective gun owners to go through an eight-hour live firearm training course, get fingerprinted, and pass both local and federal background checks in order to obtain a permit to buy a handgun – have yet to come online.
This delay, gun shop owners say, means they must call the Delaware State Police Bureau of Identification each time a customer comes into their store with a permit to buy a gun to confirm that it is legitimate.
Some shop owners, like Gunnar Thompson of Lighthouse Guns & Gear in Selbyville, are calling the delay in getting the computer systems up and running evidence of the state’s unpreparedness for permit to purchase to go into effect.
“Rather than admitting they couldn’t get it done in time, they just kind of opened up a half-assed version,” Thompson said. …