Two days ago we heard news that Delaware became the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage.
And yesterday, Delaware passed a new law requiring background checks for most private gun sales.
“Today we are closing the private-sale loophole once and for all,” Markell said. “No longer will we have two different markets for the sale of firearms, a regulated market for dealers and an unregulated market for everybody else."
In addition, the Delaware General Assembly are working on four more gun bills, two of which are described as bipartisan.
Hopefully someone in DC is paying attention to how states like Delaware are taking this opportunity to make meaningful changes to current gun legislation.
Obviously, passing legislation at the state level is a bit less problematic than at the federal level. Just looking at the numbers for same-sex marriage (12-9 in the Senate and 23-18 in the House), that pesky supermajority doesn't rear its ugly head, and they apparently didn't even need all the Democratic votes (there are 13 in the Senate and 27 in the House).
Regardless, I think this sends a positive message that when Beltway gridlock stymies progress, Democratic state legislatures will step up and show us what real leadership is supposed to look like.
According to Wikipedia, Republican-controlled state governments (legislature and governor) outnumber Democrat-controlled states 2 to 1.
The difference is, only the Blue states are passing laws that are not only popular, but make their states better, while the Red states continue to suffer.
Hopefully, examples like Delaware wake up those Red states to the benefits of being Blue.