Traci Murphy of the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, and board member George Higgins joined a rally at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. (Courtesy of Traci Murphy)
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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.
Jeff Hague of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association is also undeterred. He described the high court’s non-action as a minor speed bump on the way to getting the laws overturned.
“It was just procedural and has nothing to do with the merits of the case,’’ Hague said. “They didn’t win anything about the constitutionality of the semi-auto ban, the magazine ban. The constitutionality of the underlying [statutes] has not been argued.”
However, Hague said that his group’s cases will be on hold while advocates on both sides of those issues wait for the high court to rule on whether to take up efforts to overturn assault-style weapons bans and magazine size limits in other states.
Should the high court wade into the fight and declare those laws unconstitutional, Hague said that would pave the way for his side’s victory in the Delaware battle.
For now, no one in Delaware can buy an AR-15, AK-47 or a host of other long guns. Magazines that hold more than 17 rounds are also forbidden. The law requiring anyone who wants to buy a handgun to be fingerprinted and take a training course at their expense takes effect in November.
Murphy said the laws on assault-style weapons and magazines will help prevent the mass shootings that have plagued other states, particularly at schools.
“There are people that are interested in owning these weapons, but the bottom line is, there are also people interested in owning Molotov cocktails, and we don’t allow that,’’ she said.
“The bottom line is it’s up to the government of our country to protect us, and this is one of the ways they’ve chosen to do it.”
The attorney general concurred.
“The idea that the founders envisioned unfettered access to AR-15s when they described a ‘well-regulated militia’ is absolute delusion,’’ Jennings said. “Assault weapons and large capacity magazines are modern tools whose sole purpose is to kill.“
Jennings contends the permit-to-purchase statute will help keep handguns, which are responsible for most shootings in Wilmington, Dover and elsewhere in Delaware, out of the hands of criminals.
The permit-to-purchase law “will lower gun homicides by 25%, lower gun suicides by 50% and reduce gun trafficking by 75%,’’ Jennings said. “The leading cause of death for children in our country is gun violence, and that’s why guns matter. They matter to every parent in this state.”
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