Why Should Delaware Care?
A series of gun regulations passed by the Delaware General Assembly in recent years have faced legal challenges from Second Amendment advocates. In two recent rulings, courts offered mixed decisions on gun laws, raising uncertainty for stakeholders as to how the opinions can be interpreted with other existing state laws and additional pending federal decisions, such as New Jersey’s assault weapons ban.
Two recent court rulings delivered opposing opinions on Delaware gun laws that have been litigated for years.
The court decisions — one declaring portions of a Delaware law that criminalizes self-assembled “ghost” guns unconstitutional, and another restricting the age at which Delawareans can independently purchase and operate a gun — have further divided advocacy groups and raised questions about the future implementation of gun laws in the state.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Kathy Jennings, who was the defendant in both cases, said the rulings do not change the state’s policy of preventing gun violence, while also “upholding the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens to own and possess firearms for self-defense, hunting and recreation.”
But Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, the state’s NRA-affiliate, which was a plaintiff in the age restrictions lawsuit, said the rulings created a “ridiculous and stupid” situation in the midst of an already underway hunting season.
Still, questions remain for both groups as to how the rulings can be reconciled with other recent gun laws and how policy changes spurred by the court cases will be implemented.
A Sept. 10 U.S. District Court opinion found that portions of Delaware’s 2021 ghost gun law, which criminalizes the possession and distribution of firearms without serial numbers, are unconstitutional.
The court argued that the Second Amendment right to self-defense includes allowing individuals to assemble untraceable firearms.
But Gov. Matt Meyer recently signed a bill into law, creating a pathway for individuals with unserialized firearms, or “ghost guns,” to bring them into legal compliance. A move that Hague attributed to political maneuvering meant to blunt the court ruling.
Meanwhile, a Sept. 8 Delaware Supreme Court decision found that lawmakers’ 2022 decision to prohibit 18 to 20 year olds from buying or operating a gun without adult supervision was constitutionally sound.
The decision overturned a Kent County Superior Court ruling that first struck down the law last year.
Further complicating the age restriction question, the General Assembly passed a bill in June — which Gov. Meyer subsequently signed into law — allowing 16 and 17 year olds to hunt without direct adult supervision if they possess a Delaware hunting license.
As a result of the Sept. 8 state Supreme Court decision, 16 and 17 year olds are able to hunt independently in Delaware, while 18 to 20 year olds are not.
Ghost gun laws
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware upheld some parts of the state’s 2021 ghost gun law but struck down others, arguing there are different constitutional allowances for manufacturing versus distributing unserialized firearms.
The court determined that state law prohibiting “manufacturing or assembling” an unserialized firearm is not legal, because it limits an individual’s constitutional right to self-defense.
At the same time, the court upheld the section of the law prohibiting individuals from “selling or transferring” an untraceable firearm.
Judge Maryellen Noreika, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote the decision in the case. The lawsuit was originally filed against the state in 2022 by two Delawareans who own unserialized firearms, John Rigby and Alan Knight, and the gun rights advocacy organization the Firearms Policy Coalition.
The ruling does not seem to impact the recently signed House Bill 418, which creates a pathway for individuals with unserialized firearms to get them serialized by a federally licensed dealer.
A spokesperson for the Delaware Attorney General’s office said the department is still “evaluating their options” in terms of appealing the decision.
Gov. Meyer’s office did not respond to requests for comment as to whether they intend to appeal the ruling.
Hague, the sportsmen’s association president, said the district court’s ruling is “hollow” because of HB 418. He described the new law as “shenanigans” by Jennings and state lawmakers to circumvent court rulings and ensure it is still illegal to have an unserialized firearm.
He added that the Firearms Policy Coalition will likely challenge the new serialization pathway in court.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office did not respond to questions about Hague’s claim that Jennings helped introduce the updated ghost gun serialization law to circumvent the court. Spokeswomen for the state House and Senate majority caucuses also said lawmakers in both chambers were not available to comment.
But Traci Murphy, director of the gun violence prevention group Coalition for a Safer Delaware, said her organization anticipated a ruling like this one. She said the organization worked with state lawmakers to write the updated legislation creating a pathway to serialize firearms.
“We saw the writing on the wall on some of how these higher court rulings were going, and we thought, ‘If they’re going to say that our ghost gun law is unconstitutional, we better come up with a constitutional pathway to get these firearms serialized,'” Murphy told Spotlight Delaware.
Questions of age
Separate from ghost guns, the state Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers could legally bar 18 to 20 year olds from purchasing or operating guns without supervision — a reversal of a lower court’s ruling last fall.
Justices argued in a 4-1 decision the state could do so because these individuals have alternative ways, such as purchasing shot guns and muzzle-loading rifles or going through the concealed carry permit process, to access guns and exercise their state constitutional right to self-defense.
Chief Justice C.J. Seitz pointed to the fact that Gavin Birney, one of the plaintiffs in the case, was able to obtain a concealed carry permit in 65 days as a “real-life example” of a work-around to the restrictions under the law.
While some state leaders characterized the ruling as a victory for gun safety, Hague said it amounted to the justices doing “acrobatics, headstands and somersaults to justify the actions they did.”
Still, he said his group does not plan to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court because it is unlikely the court would take it up.
Implementation confusion
The state Supreme Court ruling raises logistical complications with hunting season already underway, as another recently passed state law seemingly contradicts the court-imposed age restrictions.
The Kent County Superior Court first declared the age restrictions on 18 to 20 year olds moot last September, right after the law had gone into effect and just as hunting season began. That means this fall marks the first time the state must fully implement its age restriction rules.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) had already released its 2026-27 Hunting and Trapping Guide before the Sept. 8 court decision. The currently available version of the guide states that 16 to 18 year olds can hunt without direct supervision if they have completed the necessary courses and permissions, and individuals over 18 “may hunt without direct supervision.”
A spokesperson for DNREC said the department is currently “consulting with legal counsel,” and plans to provide updated guidance to hunters based on the new court ruling next week.
At the same time, House Bill 427, which Gov. Meyer signed into law in mid-August, allows 16 and 17 year olds who have completed the necessary training courses and have parental permission to hunt independently.
The state Supreme Court ruling did not address HB 427, which means 16 and 17 year olds are — for now — able to hunt without adult supervision, while 18 to 20 year olds are not.
House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton), who was the primary sponsor of the bill, said the recent ruling has created a “potential enforcement nightmare” with the inconsistency in requirements among the ages.
Spiegelman said he plans to introduce legislation when the General Assembly reconvenes in January that would pass constitutional muster and allow 18 to 20 year olds to hunt unsupervised, too. He declined to say how specifically he would adjust the legislation to be constitutional.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
