Delaware State Police stopped Alvina Vansickle from purchasing a .22-caliber pistol for self-defense because she was too old and a woman, said Superintendent Col. Thomas MacLeish.
The outrage that followed led to the revelation that Delaware State Police had been keeping lists of gun buyers for years; state law requires them to destroy these records after 60 days. [emphasis added]
Without so much as a traffic ticket, the 81-year-old Lewes resident should have sailed through the mandatory state police background check when she tried to buy a Taurus revolver from Charlie Steele's Lewes gun shop last August.
Problems started after Steele made the required phone call to state police for approval of the firearms transaction.
An employee in the state police Firearms Transaction Approval Program noticed Vansickle's age and gender, and brought the sale to an immediate halt.
Article here. Read the article for more on the failure of the state police to destroy the gun purchase records, as required by law. Unfortunately, there is often very little downside for government bureaucrats when they don't obey the law.
From a related op-ed on the woman's case:
Alvina Vansickle should not have run afoul of common sense and common courtesy when she attempted to purchase a gun for self-protection.
Her outrageous treatment highlights how unfounded prejudicial practices in the application of state laws can be used to interfere with citizens' rights under the Second Amendment.
It also revealed a concealed sexist approach to gun ownership being administered by the state.
The 81-year-old Lewes resident, who had no criminal history to prevent the gun sale, had to wait nearly a week beyond the normal approval process time because an uninformed state police employee thought Vansickle was too old -- and even worse, a woman.
Read the op-ed here.
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