Legal Crossfire In The First State: 16-Year-Olds Can Hunt Unsupervised, But 18-to-20s Face Blanket Firearm Ban

DOVER, DE — The Second Amendment landscape in the First State has entered a period of sharp judicial turbulence. In back-to-back rulings, Delaware’s highest state bench and a federal district court arrived at opposing philosophical conclusions regarding the state’s authority to restrict the exercise of arms.

The bifurcated decisions leave both gun-rights advocates and gun-control organizations parsing complex administrative contradictions, while state wildlife officials face an immediate enforcement crisis on public and private hunting grounds.

Federal Court: Assembling Firearms Protected Under the Second Amendment

The federal ruling stems from Rigby v. Jennings, a 2022 constitutional challenge filed by Delaware residents John Rigby and Alan Knight alongside the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC).

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika struck down core sections of Delaware’s 2021 statute that criminalized the manufacturing and assembly of unserialized firearms:

• Assembly is Protected: The court concluded that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms necessarily encompasses an individual’s right to self-manufacture firearms for personal self-defense, finding no historical tradition of prohibiting citizens from building their own arms at the Founding.
• Commercial Restrictions Maintained: The court drew a strict line between self-manufacture and commercial distribution, upholding provisions of the law that bar individuals from selling or transferring untraceable, unserialized firearms to third parties.

The ruling was complicated by the recent passage of House Bill 418, signed by Governor Matt Meyer, which established a formal pathway for citizens to bring home-built firearms to a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) to be serialized. Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association (DSSA)—the state’s NRA affiliate—dismissed the bill as a legislative workaround designed to blunt judicial oversight. Gun-violence prevention groups, including the Coalition for a Safer Delaware, countered that the bill was proactive policymaking anticipated to preserve public safety amid shifting federal jurisprudence.

State Supreme Court: Under-21 Restrictions Reinstated

While the federal bench expanded individual manufacturing liberties, the Delaware Supreme Court moved in the opposite direction regarding young adults.

In a 4-1 decision authored by Chief Justice C.J. Seitz, the state high court overturned a Kent County Superior Court ruling that had invalidated the 2022 ban on 18-to-20-year-olds purchasing or operating firearms without direct adult supervision.

The justices reasoned that the restriction does not amount to a complete deprivation of self-defense rights under Article I, Section 20 of the Delaware Constitution. The majority pointed out that young adults retain alternative avenues to access arms, such as purchasing shotguns and muzzle-loading long guns or applying for a Delaware concealed carry permit. Chief Justice Seitz cited plaintiff Gavin Birney’s ability to secure a concealed carry permit within 65 days as proof that lawful avenues remain accessible.

Hague sharply criticized the logic, accusing the state bench of performing “acrobatics, headstands, and somersaults” to uphold the statute.

The Hunting Season Contradiction

The intersection of the Delaware Supreme Court ruling and recent state legislative action has produced a glaring statutory paradox.

In August, Governor Meyer signed House Bill 427, sponsored by House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton). The statute expressly allows licensed 16- and 17-year-olds who have completed state hunter safety courses and obtained parental permission to hunt in the field without direct adult supervision.

Because the Delaware Supreme Court did not review HB 427, the operational status of state law currently creates an inverted tier of rights:

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) had already distributed its official 2026–2027 Hunting and Trapping Guide prior to the September 8 ruling, informing hunters that anyone over 18 could hunt independently. DNREC confirmed it is reviewing the decision with legal counsel and expects to release amended enforcement directives to field wardens.

Representative Spiegelman described the dynamic as a “potential enforcement nightmare” and announced plans to introduce clean-up legislation in January to ensure equal treatment for 18-to-20-year-old sportspeople under constitutional standards.

The Law: Reconciling Federal Bruen Review with State Constitutional Rulings

The divergence between these two decisions illustrates the growing friction between federal Second Amendment jurisprudence and state-level constitutional interpretations.

• Federal “Text, History, and Tradition”: Judge Noreika’s federal ruling applied the strict historical standard mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen and Rahimi precedents. Under this framework, modern legislative prohibitions on firearm components and home manufacture fail because early American history reflects widespread private gunsmithing and an absence of serial number mandates.
• State Alternative-Avenues Analysis: By contrast, the Delaware Supreme Court adjudicated the age-restriction lawsuit primarily under the Delaware Constitution’s independent self-defense clause. Rather than demanding direct Founding-era analogues prohibiting 18-year-olds from bearing arms, the state court leaned heavily on the existence of administrative exemptions (such as concealed carry permits and supervised long-gun use) to determine that the restriction does not destroy the core right.

Safety & Compliance Tip: Delaware gun owners, particularly young adults and parents of hunters, must exercise extreme caution while state agencies update their regulatory guidelines. A 19-year-old operating a long gun on public hunting lands without an adult within arm’s reach technically faces criminal liability under the reinstated 2022 statute, even though a 16-year-old hunting on the adjacent plot may be operating fully within the provisions of HB 427. Hunters in the 18-to-20 bracket should ensure an adult supervisor is physically present until DNREC or the General Assembly issues formal statutory clarification.