A handgun and ammunition sit on a wooden table.
DOVER, Del. – A Delaware law restricting residents under 21 years old from owning most firearms is constitutional, the state Supreme Court has held in overturning a lower court ruling that invalidated legislation.
A 42-page majority opinion issued this week drew a dissent from Justice Gary Traynor, who said HB 451 “imposes a near-categorical ban on the ability of law-abiding adult citizens” from ages 18-20 to possess handguns – “weapons that have been recognized as the ‘quintessential defense weapon.’”
Meanwhile, state Attorney General Kathy Jennings celebrated the ruling as a major victory for gun safety.
“Guns are the leading cause of death for kids and teens in our country and nothing should be off the table to change that,” she said.
Delaware joined the group of states that raised the legal age to possess firearms when then-Gov. John Carney signed HB 451 into law in 2022. The only exceptions made for 18-20-year-olds are for those in the military and law enforcement and those who have concealed-carry permits.
Shotguns and rifles used for hunting are also exempt from the law. The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association and the Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club mounted a legal challenge in 2022, three years before the law went into effect, and found a favorable ear in Superior Court judge Reneta Green-Street.
She struck the law a year ago, finding the exception for a concealed-carry permit “does not adequately protect the right to self-defense” thanks to the red tape that must be cut through to obtain one, but her ruling failed to persuade the justices, as did a Third Circuit decision invalidating similar Pennsylvania laws. In that case, Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police, the Third Circuit applied U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Bruen that requires governments to prove new firearm laws are consistent with America’s “historical tradition” of regulation.
“(E)ven if Bruen set a new “floor” for firearm rights, we are not required to adopt it for our Section 20 jurisprudence,” Chief Justice Collins Seitz Jr. wrote. “It is true that states must abide by the U.S. Constitution.
“But the federal ‘floor’ is enforced in state courts through challenges brought under the Second Amendment. It does not affect our review of a state constitutional provision.”
In dissent, Justice Traynor started by laying out the terms of Section 20 of the Delaware Constitution – that a person has the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and for hunting and recreational use.
And the new law says it is not a violation if a person under the age of 21 uses a firearm in justifiable self-defense.
“What does this mean when read together with H.B. 451’s prohibitory sections? As best I can tell, in its simplest terms it means that, to be prepared to defend himself or others by possessing a handgun, an 18-20-year-old must first commit the felonious act of possessing a handgun,” Traynor wrote.
“Never mind that the felonious act carries a sentence of up to eight years in prison… Inviting an 18-20-year-old to break the law as a condition to the use of a handgun in self-defense is, in my view, ill-conceived and does not, as a practical matter, preserve the right of self-defense.”
