Why Should Delaware Care?
Hunting, fishing and trapping advocates in Delaware say they are concerned by a decrease in the popularity and culture of their sports in the state. With the introduction of a bill that would codify the rights of hunters and fishers in the state constitution, lawmakers aim to protect that hunting and fishing culture.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has introduced a bill that would amend the state constitution to explicitly include Delawareans’ right to hunt, trap and fish.
What those constitutional rights would mean for hunters in practice, however, remains unclear.
The proposed legislation, Senate Bill 212, does not spell out any specific rights for hunters, fishers and trappers, but rather simply acknowledges that these activities are a part of Delaware’s “valued, natural heritage,” and that they contribute to the management of wildlife in the state, House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton), a co-sponsor of the bill, told Spotlight Delaware.
The bill’s primary sponsor, State Sen. Dave Wilson (R-Lincoln), said he is concerned that animal rights groups or gun control advocates could come to the legislature in the future and try to outlaw or further regulate hunting, so he wants to enshrine it as a right in the state constitution.
“All I’m looking at is, guaranteed, the right for future generations to do something that for the last 250 years we’ve been able to do and nobody ever questioned it,” Wilson said.
Wilson and Spiegelman both said that they do not agree with the recent passage of more strict gun control legislation in Delaware, like the enactment of permit to purchase this past November, but they see this codification of hunters’ rights as a separate issue from firearm laws.
Twenty one other states have similar provisions in their state constitutions preserving the right to hunt, fish and trap wildlife. None of Delaware’s East Coast neighbors have the right to hunt and fish constitutionally protected, though Vermont was the first state to adopt such a statute in 1777.
Because it is a proposed constitutional amendment rather than a standard law, the bill would require a two-thirds majority vote by both the current General Assembly and next year’s General Assembly.
The last time the Delaware state constitution was amended was in 2023, when the General Assembly passed amendments to adjust the legislature’s Division of Research, require legislators to live in the districts they represent for their entire term of office and require the last day of the General Assembly’s regular session to end by 5 p.m. June 30.
While Wilson acknowledged that accumulating the two-thirds majority necessary to approve the amendment could be a challenge, the bill already appears to have bipartisan support in the form of co-sponsors William Carson (D-Smyrna) and Alonna Berry (D-Milton).
Reps. Carson and Berry did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.
Wilson said he and his colleagues had considered a hunters’ and fishers’ rights amendment in the past, but the proposed legislation did not have the support of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), the state agency that issues hunting and trapping licenses.
This time around, however, Wilson said he went to DNREC first to ensure that they were comfortable with the bill, before bringing it to the legislature.
Michael Globetti, a spokesperson for DNREC, said his department was “appreciative” of the chance to work with Wilson on his proposed amendment.
“We worked with the Senator on language in his proposal that makes clear that reasonable laws and regulations will continue to guide these activities in Delaware,” Globetti wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware.
The bill states that if the amendment were adopted, it would still be up to DNREC and other state agencies to determine the application of property rights, water use laws, and the suspension or revocation of any individuals’ hunting, fishing, or trapping licenses.
A wildlife focus
While Wilson and Speigelman said the principal goal of the amendment is to keep hunters’, fishers’, and trappers’ rights protected from any future legal challenges, they also want it to recognize how hunting helps maintain the state’s wildlife.
Spiegelman said the fact that the annual license fees hunters and fishers pay to DNREC are used to fund wildlife conservation and habitat restoration is evidence of hunters’ and fishers’ positive impact on the natural environment.
He also noted the federal Pittman-Robertson Act, passed in 1937, which began the process of funding wildlife conservation through taxes on firearms, ammunition and other hunting gear.
Spiegelman said he believes that if hunting and fishing is not encouraged in Delaware through measures like the proposed constitutional amendment, the number of licenses the state sells will continue to decrease each year, making it harder for the state to maintain wildlife areas.
DNREC issued 15,400 licenses in 2024, according to the most recent numbers published by the agency. That is the lowest number of licenses sold in decades, as the total number of hunters in Delaware peaked at about 30,000 in 1975, and has steadily dropped since then.
Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmens’ Association, said his group is “totally in support” of the bill, and that he appreciates how it acknowledges hunters’ responsibility to be good stewards of the state’s natural resources.
Hague said he thinks people have often done more harm to animals by cutting down forests to build housing developments and using chemicals on wildlife than hunters do by naturally managing the animal population.
“We believe in the proper management of all the game, fish and wildlife in the state of Delaware, so that we can make sure that these resources are available for the future,” Hague added.
Wilson said he takes issue with the recent passage of more strict firearm laws in Delaware, such as House Bill 451 requiring hunters aged 18 to 20 be supervised by someone age 21+, which was later struck down by a Superior Court judge, and Senate Bill 2, requiring individuals to obtain a permit to purchase a firearm.
At the same time, though, Wilson said he views the proposed amendment as a separate issue from the firearm legislation, and a more direct way to preserve the state’s hunting culture.
“It’s not really changing anything other than guaranteeing that the future of our youth and residents of Delaware will always be afforded the right to fish, hunt and trap,” he said.
Wilson filed the bill on Dec. 18, 2025. Because it has not yet been heard in committee, he said he does not expect any movement until mid-March, since February and early March will be taken up by Joint Finance Committee hearings.