Supreme Court won’t review Delaware gun control laws, but legal battles continue

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When Delaware lawmakers banned the sale of assault-style weapons and limited gun magazine sizes to 17 rounds in 2022, firearms rights advocates insisted the new laws were unconstitutional and would not withstand legal challenges.

Sure enough, they promptly sued in U.S. District Court in Wilmington. While the case began winding through the system, they attempted to get a preliminary injunction to prevent the laws from taking effect. But a federal judge rejected that bid, and so did the 3rd U.S. Circuit of Appeals.

Undeterred, a group of gun owners and Second Amendment advocates, including the Firearms Policy Coalition, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower court decisions.

But this week, the nation’s highest court declined.

The justices also declined to review federal court decisions upholding Maryland’s handgun licensing requirements, which were a model for Delaware’s permit-to-purchase law that passed last year. The Delaware law is also facing a lawsuit by gun advocacy groups, including the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association.

So with all three Delaware laws still intact — even though the lawsuits remain active — the state’s gun control advocates are ecstatic.

“We’re doing great work in this movement, and the Supreme Court is saying, ‘yeah, you’re doing great work, and it’s constitutional,’’’ said Traci Murphy, director of the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence.

Attorney General Kathy Jennings seconded that notion.

“The gun safety laws that have been passed have been overwhelmingly popular in our state,’’ Jennings told WHYY News. “And so this is yet another failure by the gun lobby to take away those safety measures.”

The Supreme Court petition regarding the two Delaware laws asked the justices to consider “whether the infringement of Second Amendment rights constitutes per se irreparable injury.”

Murphy said the only harm is to those who want to sell the expensive assault-style weapons.

“The only reason people are advocating for access to assault weapons is to line the pockets of the gun industry,’’ Murphy said. “They make more money when they sell bigger weapons. The only irreparable harm that’s happening, if you even consider it to be irreparable, is to people who are losing out on the money they would have made by selling weapons that are designed to kill people.”

Though the high court declined to weigh in, David Thompson, the lead attorney for the firearms rights advocates, told WHYY News that the fight on that principle isn’t over.

“We continue to believe that a deprivation of rights secured by the United States Constitution constitutes irreparable injury, and we look forward to vindicating that principle in future litigation,’’ Thompson said.