Delaware Concealed Carry Permit

CHANGED AS OF SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 — this is no longer a preliminary-injunction question. On that date Judge Maryellen Noreika issued a Memorandum Opinion (D.I. 81) and Order (D.I. 82) granting in part and denying in part both sides' cross-motions for summary judgment in Rigby v. Jennings, C.A. No. 21-1523 (MN) (D. Del.), and the Clerk entered JUDGMENT and closed the case (D.I. 83). The September 23, 2022 preliminary injunction is therefore superseded by a PERMANENT injunction and a final judgment. PERMANENTLY ENJOINED — the Order bars enforcement of: 11 Del. C. § 1459A(b) (knowingly possessing an unfinished firearm frame or receiver that lacks the manufacturer's name and an individual serial number); 11 Del. C. § 1463(a) (knowingly possessing an untraceable firearm); the portion of 11 Del. C. § 1463(b) that prohibits 'knowingly manufactur[ing] [or] assembl[ing] [] an untraceable firearm' and 'caus[ing] [an untraceable firearm] to be manufactured or assembled'; and 11 Del. C. § 1463(c)(1) (using a 3-dimensional printer or similar device to manufacture or produce a firearm, firearm receiver, or major firearm component when not licensed as a manufacturer). The Court held that unserialized, untraceable firearms and unfinished frames and receivers are 'Arms' within the Second Amendment's plain text, and that the manufacturing-and-assembly ban — 'perhaps the most difficult aspect of the challenged laws' — fails at Bruen's first step because acquiring a firearm is a necessary predicate of keeping one. DECLARED CONSTITUTIONAL AND STILL FULLY ENFORCEABLE — the same Order granted the Attorney General summary judgment that these remain in force: 11 Del. C. § 1459A(a) (no knowingly transporting, shipping, transferring or selling an unfinished frame or receiver unless the person is a federally licensed gun dealer or manufacturer, the manufacturer's name and an individual serial number are conspicuously placed on it per 18 U.S.C. § 923(i), and § 923(g) records are maintained); the portions of § 1463(b) prohibiting 'sell[ing] or transfer[ring] an untraceable firearm'; and § 1463(c)(2) (distributing, including over the internet, computer-aided design files or other code for 3-D printing a firearm to anyone not licensed as a manufacturer). Section 1462 (covert or undetectable firearms, class E or D felony) was not part of the challenge and remains enforceable. PRACTICAL EFFECT — building or 3-D printing a firearm for your own use, and possessing it unserialized, is no longer enforceable against you in Delaware. That is why selfManufactureAllowed is now true and serialRequired is false: Delaware provides no procedure for a private individual to obtain or apply a serial number, and both provisions that punished the unserialized result (§§ 1459A(b), 1463(a)) are permanently enjoined. Three real limits survive: (1) you may not sell or transfer what you make, because the distribution prong of § 1463(b) stands; (2) no one may lawfully ship, transfer or sell you an unserialized unfinished frame or receiver in Delaware under § 1459A(a), so sourcing a blank in-state remains constrained even though possessing one is no longer punishable; and (3) you may not distribute the digital files under § 1463(c)(2). Federal law continues to apply independently. STATUS CAVEAT — the enjoined statutes remain on the books in unamended form; the injunction runs against the Attorney General and those acting in concert with her, it does not repeal the text. Final judgment was entered only five days before this record was verified. As of the docket read on 2026-09-15 no notice of appeal had been filed and the last docket entry was the September 10, 2026 judgment, but the State's window to appeal to the Third Circuit was still open. Anyone relying on this should confirm the current appellate status with counsel before building anything.

11 Del. C. §§ 1459A, 1462, 1463 (definitions at 11 Del. C. § 222(4), (37), (38), (40)), as permanently enjoined in part by Rigby v. Jennings, C.A. No. 21-1523 (MN) (D. Del. Sept. 10, 2026)

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

What we could not confirm

• RECIPROCITY DATE: as of 2026-09-15 the Delaware DOJ CCDW page still captions its recognized-states list 'For the period from January 15, 2025 to January 15, 2026' — eight months past its own stated expiry — while the same page's instructor list is captioned 'Updated 9/14/2026'. The page is therefore actively maintained and only the reciprocity caption appears not to have been republished; I found no separately published January 15, 2026 list. Section 1441(j) forbids removing a state without one year's posted notice and the page states no removals were pending for January 15, 2026, so the 21 listed states are almost certainly still current, but a traveller should confirm with the DOJ CCDW Inquiry Line at (302) 577-5039 before relying on it.
• MINIMUM AGE: no official Delaware page or form states a numeric minimum age. 18 is derived from § 1441(a)'s 'person of full age' plus 1 Del. C. § 701 and the § 1448(a)(5)b.3 carve-out for 18+ CCDW licensees. I could not confirm that Prothonotaries in fact accept applicants aged 18-20; someone in that band should call the Prothonotary before applying. Note also that federal law bars a licensed dealer from selling a handgun to anyone under 21, and that Delaware's own handgun qualified purchaser permit is limited to 21+ under § 1448D(f)(1), although § 1448D(c)(2) exempts CCDW licensees from needing that permit at all.
• PERMIT SYSTEM: Delaware remains statutorily discretionary. Section 1441(d) still reads 'The Court may or may not, in its discretion, approve any application', § 1441(a)(2) still requires five citizens to certify that carrying concealed is 'necessary', and the current Form 1 still demands a specific 'Reason for Application (Be VERY Specific)'. The July 2026 instructions retain all of this and § 1441's amendment history ends in 2022, so nothing has changed post-Bruen. I found no official Delaware guidance, rule change, or reported Delaware decision eliminating the necessity showing or the Court's discretion. In practice approval is the norm: the FY2027 statistics show 2 new-application denials year-to-date against 34,158 active permits. 'may-issue' describes the statute, and a reader should not infer a high denial risk from it.
• WHO PUBLISHES THE NEWSPAPER NOTICE: the statute and the Court's own rules disagree with the Court's own instructions. 11 Del. C. § 1441(b) says 'The Prothonotary of the county in which any applicant for a license files the same shall cause notice of every such application to be published', as an alphabetical list of names and residences, and CCDW Rule 5 says only 'Publication shall be made pursuant to 11 Del. C. § 1441(b).' But the Superior Court's Instructions revised July 2026 make it step 1 for the APPLICANT to arrange publication with an approved newspaper, publish at least 10 business days before filing, obtain the newspaper's affidavit and attach it. applicationSteps follows the instructions, because that is what the Prothonotaries administer and what an applicant will actually be required to do, but the statutory text does not say that, and the publication cost is consequently an applicant expense with no rate set by the State.
• LICENSE TERM CONFLICT: 11 Del. C. § 1441(a)(5)a. gives a 3-year initial term and 5-year renewals, and the Court's FY2027 statistics report uses exactly those captions, so validityYears is recorded as 3, the initial term. Two official sources conflict with it: § 1441(e) says the license runs 'for a term to expire on June 1 next succeeding the date of such approval', and CCDW Rule 9 — effective May 1, 1993 and never updated for the 2010 amendment — says the initial license expires the first June 1 'of the second year next succeeding' and a renewal the 'third year next succeeding'. The statute controls and licenses expire on June 1, but a reader comparing sources will see the discrepancy.
• PHOTOGRAPH SPECIFICATION CONFLICT: CCDW Rule 3 requires two 1.5" x 1.5" passport-style photographs, while the July 2026 instructions and Form 1 both require two 2" x 2" color official passport photographs and warn that improper photos will be rejected. applicationSteps follows the instructions and the form.
• PROCESSING TIME: Delaware publishes no official average. The figures given are structural — the AG's 30-day response window under Rule 6 and the 90-day post-approval training deadline — plus the pending counts in the FY2027 statistics report run 9/11/2026.
• HOME MANUFACTURE, APPEAL WINDOW: the Rigby permanent injunction and final judgment were entered on September 10, 2026, only five days before this verification. The CourtListener docket read on 2026-09-15 showed D.I. 81 (Memorandum Opinion), D.I. 82 (Order) and D.I. 83 (JUDGMENT, CASE CLOSED) as the final entries and NO notice of appeal, but the State's 30-day window to appeal to the Third Circuit was still open and a notice of appeal or a stay could issue at any time. The enjoined provisions also remain on the books in unamended form. This needs re-checking before the next publication cycle.
• HOME MANUFACTURE, RESIDUAL LIMIT: although possessing and making an unserialized self-built firearm is now permanently unenforceable, 11 Del. C. § 1459A(a) was expressly declared constitutional, so no one may lawfully ship, transfer or sell an unserialized unfinished frame or receiver in Delaware. How a would-be builder lawfully SOURCES a blank in-state is therefore unresolved on the face of the ruling, and selfManufactureAllowed: true should be read as 'making and keeping one is not punishable', not as 'the whole supply chain is lawful'.
• TRAINING HOURS: § 1441(a)(3) sets course content and a 100-round live-fire minimum but no hour count; approved instructors set their own course length. Any specific hour figure would be fabricated, which is why training.hours is left as the baseline's empty string rather than a number.
• OPEN CARRY: no Delaware statute or official state page affirmatively states that open carry is lawful without a license; that conclusion rests on the absence of any licensing requirement outside § 1442's concealment element. It is qualified by § 1448(a)(5), the under-21 possession bar, and by municipal ordinances under 22 Del. C. § 111 — whose text I DID verify on the official Delaware Code page this pass, resolving the baseline's open question. Section 111 authorises municipal regulation only in police stations and municipal buildings (parking facilities excluded), preserves ordinances existing before July 4, 1985, and requires any such ordinance to exempt § 1441 and § 1441A licensees carrying concealed. The baseline's reference to municipal 'park' restrictions under § 111 was not supported by the text and has been dropped.
• CODE CURRENCY: the Delaware Code Online version I read states that it 'includes all acts enacted as of August 25, 2026, up to and including 85 Del. Laws, c. 439'. Any act enacted between August 25 and September 15, 2026 would not appear, though Delaware's General Assembly is normally out of session in that window. I confirmed § 1441's own per-section amendment history ends at 83 Del. Laws, c. 339, § 20, so no post-baseline amendment touches the licensing provisions.
• SESSION LAW NOT READABLE: § 1448 carries the note '[For application of this section, see 85 Del. Laws, c. 430, § 2]'. The General Assembly's session-law viewer for that chapter is a paged JavaScript/PDF application that returned no chapter text to me, so I could not read 85 Del. Laws, c. 430 itself and relied on the codified text of § 1448 at delcode.delaware.gov, which is an official version of the Code. The 85 Del. Laws series appears to be a conforming package extending firearm provisions to 'projectile weapons' (85 Del. Laws, c. 119 amended the 'deadly weapon' definition). Nothing in it affects a carry-permit field.
• INSTRUCTOR LIST PDF UNVERIFIABLE: the DOJ's approved-instructor PDFs sit behind a web application firewall that answers HTTP 200 with a 244-byte 'Request Rejected' HTML body instead of the document — both for the URL the baseline cited (.../2026/07/AG-Instructor-List-2.pdf, which the page no longer links) and for the two the page links today. instructorRegistryUrl therefore points at the DOJ CCDW page itself, which I did fetch and read, and the unverifiable PDF has been removed from sources.