Judge Strikes Down Delaware’s Ghost Gun Possession Ban
Judge Strikes Down Delaware’s Ghost Gun Possession Ban
Score one for the folks who like building their own guns. A federal judge in Delaware has ruled that the state’s ban on possessing unserialized firearms and privately manufacturing guns runs afoul of the Second Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika found the possession and manufacturing bans facially unconstitutional and entered final judgment for the plaintiffs — the Firearms Policy Coalition and two Delaware gun owners. She’d already granted a preliminary injunction against those provisions back in 2022, so the outcome isn’t exactly shocking. Still good to see a federal judge take the Second Amendment seriously.
What Survived — And What Didn’t
It wasn’t a total sweep. Noreika kept Delaware’s ban on sharing computer-aided design files and code used to 3D print gun parts. The Third Circuit has already held that computer code isn’t expressive speech under the First Amendment, so she was arguably bound to uphold that piece.
She also left the state’s distribution ban intact. That provision bars knowingly transporting, shipping, transferring, or selling unfinished frames or receivers, and Noreika ruled it doesn’t burden the right to keep or bear unserialized firearms.
The Core Ruling
The Third Circuit did most of the heavy lifting here. It has held that “arms” covers anything “necessary for [] a gun to function as intended,” which includes frames and receivers. Noreika concluded the Second Amendment covers all frames and receivers, not just those with a manufacturer’s label or serial number.
Delaware argued untraceable guns aren’t in “common use” and therefore aren’t “Arms.” Per Noreika, the Third Circuit already tossed that argument, since “common use” belongs at Bruen’s second step. She rejected the state’s framing too. Casting ghost guns as tools of criminality, she wrote, “analogizes at ‘such a high level of generality’ that it risks ‘water[ing] down the right.'”
A Roadmap For Lawmakers
Noreika did hand legislators a path forward. A serialization scheme for self-manufactured firearms — current and future — might pass muster, she suggested, and the state could even regulate the materials in 3D-printed guns for reliability. Whether Delaware appeals or rewrites the law remains to be seen.