Why Should Delaware Care?
The enactment of stricter hunting supervision and firearm purchase rules prompted pushback from many Southern Delaware hunters. A state court ruling that the more stringent regulations are unconstitutional is a victory for hunters, but a loss for gun violence prevention advocates across the state. 

A judge ruled last week that a Delaware law tightening gun regulations for residents under the age of 21 violates the state Constitution.

House Bill 451, which was signed into law in 2022 by former Gov. John Carney but just went into effect in July, raised the minimum age to purchase a gun in Delaware from 18 to 21. 

The law also created adult supervision requirements for residents under the age of 21 while hunting in the state, drawing pushback from hunters as well as Republican lawmakers. 

The Kent County Superior Court’s ruling, however, struck down the legislation’s age requirements on the grounds that they infringe upon 18-to-20-year old Delawareans’ constitutional right to self-defense.

For hunters and gun rights advocates, the legal victory came just in time for the 2025 hunting season, which officially began on Sept. 1. Gun violence prevention advocates, though, view the decision as a setback in their attempts to create more stringent gun laws in Delaware. 

“It’s frustrating that in a population that has a lot of statistical risk factors, the courts are saying, ‘Let’s let them have unfettered access to firearms,’” Coalition for a Safer Delaware executive director Traci Manza Murphy said. 

Mat Marshall, a spokesman for State Attorney General Kathy Jennings, said the office is still “evaluating the Court’s ruling,” and has not determined whether it will appeal the decision. 

‘This takes a lot of pressure off’

Gavin Birney, a Delaware hunter under the age of 21, first challenged HB 451 in Chancery Court right after Carney signed the bill into law, suing the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The Delaware State Sportsmens’ Association – the state’s affiliate of the National Rifle Association – and the Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club joined Birney’s suit. 

The lawsuit was dismissed by the Chancery Court, and then taken up by the Kent County Superior Court later in 2022. 

Jeff Hague, executive director of the State Sportsmens’ Association, said he is pleased the court ruled in their favor, but frustrated it took nearly three years to receive a decision in the case. 

“We believe that all the laws that they passed back in 2022 are unconstitutional, and this just affirms our beliefs from three years ago,” Hague told Spotlight Delaware. 

In the Aug. 29 decision, Superior Court Judge Reneta L. Green-Streett ruled that HB 451 conflicts with all Delaware adults’ rights under Article I, Section 20 of the state Constitution to keep and bear arms. 

“At a minimum, some provisions of HB 451 infringe on the right of a subsection of adults, aged eighteen to twenty, to exercise their right to ‘defense of self, family, home and State,’” Green-Streett wrote in the decision. 

The court’s ruling, which had been in limbo for a number of months, according to Hague, came just a few weeks after Spotlight Delaware published a story about HB 451 going into effect.

The Superior Court ruling is one in a series of three pieces of litigation that the Delaware State Sportsmens’ Association has filed against the state of Delaware for its gun control laws. 

The other two lawsuits – one about tightening purchase requirements for guns and another regarding bans on assault weapons – are still under litigation. The federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals has already denied requests for injunctive relief in the case, which would have paused enforcement of the laws, but the cases still face a test of their constitutionality.

For Ellendale-based hunter Adrien Cortez, the Superior Court ruling is a major victory heading into the fall hunting season. 

“This takes a lot of pressure off [my] and a lot of my peers’ shoulders,” 18-year-old Cortez said.

Because the court reached a decision on Aug. 29 and hunting season began on Sept. 1, the regulations set forth by HB 451 never actually took effect. 

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) already updated its 2025-26 Hunting and Trapping Guide to reflect the court’s ruling. The department also published a press release about the ruling in an effort to spread the word about the adjusted rules to the public, DNREC Media Relations Manager Michael Globetti wrote in an email to Spotlight Delaware. 

A continued battle 

For advocates on both sides of the debate, the court ruling is just one step in their respective battles in the gun control legislation arena.  

While the ruling denied the constitutionality of HB 451’s age restrictions, it did not strike down the legislation in its entirety. 

State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford), who has been a staunch opponent of the tighter gun restrictions, said he would still like to see the whole bill repealed. 

“We can use this court case as precedent, as one of our arguments for repealing this law,” Shupe said. 

Shupe said he plans to introduce legislation to completely revoke HB 451 and formally lower the age to hunt unsupervised and purchase firearms back to 18 when the legislature resumes in January. 

Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola (D-Newark), one of HB 451’s sponsors, said he is disappointed by the ruling. He said he is interested to see if Jennings’ office will attempt to appeal it. 

“I feel like we made a good faith effort to make sure that everything about it was constitutional,” Sokola said. 

To Manza Murphy, the bipartisan support that the legislation received back in 2022, combined with the fact that the requirements are in line with age restrictions for purchasing alcohol and renting a car, both indicate that it is reasonable. 

“This is not controversial work,” Manza Murphy said. “This is not unpalatable.”

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