Democrats in the Delaware General Assembly last week unveiled controversial legislation to ban the sale of assault-style weapons, after a similar measure in Maryland withstood a constitutional challenge from gun-rights advocates in 2017.

As Delaware Law Weekly reported earlier this month, the bill mirrors the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, which cleared the Maryland legislature in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Like the Maryland law, the Delaware bill identifies a range of “assault long guns” and other weapons that would no longer be approved for manufacture, sale and transport in the First State.

The synopsis of SB 163, introduced in the state Senate March 22, cites a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which declared that Maryland's law, known as the FSA, did not violate the constitutional right to bear arms.