Delaware gun rights groups file another lawsuit challenging buy-back program, ban on assault weapons

DOVER, Del. – Gun rights groups and sports clubs in Delaware have filed yet another a lawsuit against the Carney Administration, this time challenging a buy-back program for large capacity magazines and a ban on assault-style weapons.

The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association (DSSA) filed a legal injunction on Tuesday, Nov. 15 to halt the state’s plans to implement a buy-back program for large capacity magazines which were banned as part of a bill that was signed into law back in June. The legal filing also seeks to halt the enforcement of the state’s ban on assault-style firearms.

“You got to stop interfering with our constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” explained Jeff Hague, DSSA’s President. “I don’t interfere with anybody’s rights to free speech, they can say whatever they want about me, or anybody else.”

On June 30, Governor John Carney signed House Bill 450 into law, effectively and immediately banning a long list of commonly owned rifles, shotguns, and pistols. On that same day, Governor Carney also signed Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 6 into law effectively banning most standard capacity rifle magazines and many standard capacity pistol magazines, falsely labeling them “high capacity magazines,” according to officials with DSSA.

The latest legal filing comes on the heels of other lawsuits that challenge the constitutionality of bills that would outright ban assault-style weapons and implement certain age restrictions for purchasing firearms, specifically a measure that prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from buying or owning most firearms.

Gun rights officials like Hague argue that an outright ban on any kind of weapon just won’t work.

“You can try banning knives, you can try banning hammers, golf clubs, vehicles, it’s not gonna solve crime, people are gonna find a way to commit crime if they so choose,” Hague told our Rob Petree. “It’s just another example of a knee-jerk reaction by legislators that makes them feel good and helps the constituents feel better but does absolutely nothing to stop violent crime in the State of Delaware.”

The new law, House Bill 450, dubbed the Delaware Lethal Firearms Safety Act of 2022, bans a long list of rifles, shotguns, and pistols. The act prohibits the manufacture, sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, receipt, possession, or transport of certain assault-style weapons in Delaware, subject to certain exceptions. One exception is that the Act does not prohibit the possession and transport of firearms that were lawfully possessed or purchased before the bill became law.

Under the new law, it directs the Department of Safety and Homeland Security to develop a procedure for issuance of a voluntary certificate of possession to show lawful possession of the weapons that were legally owned before the bill was signed into law. A measure that has outraged gun rights lobbyists across the First State, including the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association (DSSA), one of several groups that has filed the joint lawsuit.

“There’s over 20 million of these types of firearms in circulation, there’s several billions rounds of ammunition, and if law abiding citizens were a problem, you’d know it,” explained DSSA President Jeff Hague. “There’s several different issues that we feel this law violates in the course of a person’s rights and that’s why we have filed a lawsuit to try to right this wrong.”

The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware seeking injunctive and declaratory relief for the gun reform bills.

DSSA was joined in this action by the Bridgeville Rifle and Pistol Club, The Delaware Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, the Delaware Rifle and Pistol Club, and several individual members of those organizations.

Not everyone feels the same way though. Groups like Moms Demand Action have been staunch supporters of the gun reform efforts spearheaded by lawmakers in Dover, and that includes the buy-back program for the magazines which for some is personal.

“This one for me, I will be honest, is personal,” explained Megan O’Donnell with Moms Demand Action’s Delaware Chapter. “I am a Las Vegas shooting survivor and high capacity magazines are why 58 people died, that’s just the reality of it right. If he had to reload, this wouldn’t be happening.”

They say they would like to see solutions proposed instead of ongoing lawsuits.

“If these are not the solutions that you agree with, present other ones, but the way that you’re doing it right now clearly isn’t working,” O’Donnell emphasized. “All of these mass shootings have something in common, and in all of them, it’s the gun.”

The latest case will be considered in U.S. District Court in Delaware. An official court date and hearing has not yet been announced.