Delaware gun laws in plain English

Delaware changed more firearm law between 2022 and 2025 than in the forty years before it. If you last bought a gun here in 2021, four things are different: you need a permit before you can buy a handgun, every private sale has to run through a dealer, a long list of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns can no longer be sold in the state, and magazines are capped at 17 rounds. This page walks through what that means for an ordinary buyer in September 2026. It is a plain-language summary, not legal advice, and the statutes are the last word.

The handgun qualified purchaser permit

Since November 16, 2025, a Delaware resident has to hold a handgun qualified purchaser permit before a dealer can transfer a handgun to them. The permit comes from the State Bureau of Identification inside the Delaware State Police. To get one you finish a certified firearms training course that includes live fire, get fingerprinted and photographed through the state's fingerprint vendor, and submit an online application with your training certificate and photo ID. The Bureau has 30 days from a complete application to issue the permit or send you a written denial with reasons. A permit runs two years from the date it is issued.

There is no state application fee for the permit itself, but you pay for the course and for fingerprinting, so budget for both. Two groups skip the permit entirely: anyone holding a valid Delaware license to carry a concealed deadly weapon, and active or retired law enforcement. Several other groups, including military members, certified instructors and hunters with a current hunter education card, are exempt from the training requirement but still apply for the permit. The law was challenged in federal court and the courts declined to block it, so it is in force while the case continues. Our Delaware carry license guide explains the route that also exempts you here.

Long guns and the age rules

Rifles and shotguns need no purchase permit in Delaware. What they do need is the background check every dealer runs, and the right age. Delaware raised the purchase and possession age to 21 for most firearms in 2022, leaving shotguns, shotgun ammunition and muzzle-loading rifles available to buyers aged 18 to 20, along with exceptions for military members, law enforcement, carry license holders and lawful hunting. A Superior Court judge struck that law down in 2025, but the Delaware Supreme Court reversed that ruling in September 2026 and the age-21 limits are back in force. Federal law separately keeps handgun sales by dealers at 21 and up everywhere.

Every sale goes through a dealer

Delaware closed the private-sale gap years ago. An unlicensed seller may not hand a firearm to another unlicensed buyer without running the transfer through a licensed dealer, who submits it to the State Bureau of Identification through the Firearm Transaction Approval Program. The transfer waits until the Bureau says proceed or 25 days pass. Close family members, including parents, grandparents, children, siblings and in-laws, are outside the requirement. A knowing violation is a misdemeanor the first time and a felony after that. In practice this means a Delaware gun show table, a classified ad and a parking-lot handshake all end at a dealer's counter, the same counter your online order arrives at.

Banned rifles and shotguns

House Bill 450, effective June 30, 2022, prohibits the manufacture, sale, transfer and purchase of a long list of named semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols, plus copies with the listed features. Guns lawfully owned before that date are grandfathered and may be kept, with limits on where they can be carried. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the law in January 2025, so it stands. For a buyer this is simple: a store cannot ship a banned model into Delaware, and no paperwork fixes that. Plenty of bolt guns, lever guns, pump and semi-automatic shotguns in field configurations, and handguns that are not on the list remain available, which is most of what a Delaware hunter or carrier wants anyway. Browse what we can actually send to a Delaware dealer in the catalog.

Seventeen rounds

Delaware's large-capacity magazine law took effect in 2022 and bans magazines able to accept more than 17 rounds. Exemptions cover law enforcement, the military, holders of a current Delaware carry license and .22 rimfire tubular magazines. Most modern pistols ship from the factory with magazines under that limit or with a state-compliant option, and we hold Delaware orders to 17 rounds so nothing arrives that your dealer cannot hand over.

Who may not have a gun at all

Delaware layers its own prohibitions on top of the federal ones. Felony convictions, certain misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence, active protection-from-abuse orders, some drug convictions and a history of commitment for a mental condition all bar possession under state law, and the state's 2018 lethal violence protective order law lets police petition a court to remove firearms from someone found to present a danger. If any of that might touch you, sort it out with a lawyer before you order a gun, not at the dealer's counter with a rejected check in hand. A denial follows you and the Bureau keeps the record.

Storage, transport and reporting a theft

Delaware expects a firearm kept where a child or a prohibited person could reach it to be secured, and it is a crime to leave one accessible to a minor who then takes it. In a vehicle, keep a handgun unloaded and out of reach unless you hold a carry license. Delaware also requires the owner of a lost or stolen firearm to report it to police, so keep a written record of make, model and serial number somewhere other than the gun safe. A cheap cable lock comes with most new guns; a real safe is better, and neither needs a permit to buy.

Carrying, and where you cannot

Open carry of a handgun is lawful in Delaware without any license for an adult who may legally possess a firearm, and the state Supreme Court has described it as a long-standing right. Concealed carry needs a license from the Superior Court in your county, a process unlike anything in the states around us, which we cover in the carry license guide. Schools, courthouses, detention facilities and posted private property are off limits regardless of how you carry, and municipal parks may add rules of their own.

Buying online in Delaware

Nothing about these laws stops you from buying online. Firearms ship to a licensed dealer you choose, not to your house; you appear in person, show ID and your permit if the gun is a handgun, sign Form 4473 and pass the check. Ammunition, optics, holsters and parts come to your door. If you are starting from scratch in western Sussex, the Laurel buying guide walks the whole order through step by step, and the city pages cover the local details from Wilmington down to Selbyville.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.