Deleware Supreme Court Supports the Right To Keep and Bear Arms in State Parks and Land

[NJGF 375]

This is how a state supreme court should act. The Deleware Supreme Court goes further than Heller in striking down state agencies that effectively eliminated the right to carry arms in state parks.

The Deleware constitution includes the right to keep and bear arms for defense of self, home, family, and state. Unfortunately New Jersey does not.

The opinion is an interesting read.

https://courts.delaware.gov/Opinions/Download.aspx?id=266310

"This appeal concerns guns and, as such, has attracted numerous amici curiae raising
politically fraught questions concerning gun rights.1 However, at its core, this case raises
straightforward questions of Delaware constitutional and administrative law. We are asked
whether unelected officials from the State’s parks and forest departments, whose power is
expressly limited, can ban (except for a narrow exception for hunting) the possession of
guns in state parks and forests in contravention of Delawareans’ rights under the State’s
constitution. Clearly they cannot. They lack such authority because they may not pass
unconstitutional laws, and the regulations completely eviscerate a core right to keep and
bear arms for defense of self and family outside the home -- a right this Court has already
recognized. As such, the regulations are unconstitutional on their face. Thus, we
REVERSE for these reasons and those that follow."