Delaware’s Supreme Court has put House Bill 451 back on the books. On September 9, 2026, the justices reversed a Superior Court decision and upheld the statute’s age-21 firearm restrictions under intermediate scrutiny. The ruling restores limits on most gun purchases and possession for adults under 21.
The court declined to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s history-and-tradition test from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to the Delaware Constitution. Intermediate scrutiny, not Bruen, is the standard it used. That choice kept a means-end balancing test in place for the state charter and let House Bill 451 stand.
Bruen is the controlling federal rule for the Second Amendment. It requires the government to show that a modern firearms law is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Delaware’s highest court refused to import that test into state constitutional law. The result is two tracks: history and tradition in federal court, intermediate scrutiny in Dover.
House Bill 451 is again in force. Adults under 21 face restored limits on most gun purchases and possession. Eighteen-, nineteen-, and twenty-year-olds are legal adults. They vote, execute contracts, and serve in the armed forces. Under this statute, they are again restricted from most firearms in Delaware.
The Superior Court’s decision does not stand. In 412-2025, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed it and reinstated the age floor. The judgment is specific: intermediate scrutiny applied, the Bruen test not applied to the Delaware Constitution, House Bill 451 upheld, and age-21 limits restored on most firearms.
Statutes are not the Constitution. Oaths run to the Constitution of the United States and to the state constitution as written, not to a balancing test the U.S. Supreme Court discarded for the right to keep and bear arms. Delaware’s high court chose a different path for its own charter. The Second Amendment and Bruen remain the measure of that right wherever those authorities control.
The age-21 restrictions are reinstated. Adults under 21 in Delaware are again subject to House Bill 451’s limits on most gun purchases and possession. The federal courts still apply Bruen. Until a court applying that test says otherwise, the statute the Delaware Supreme Court revived is the law the state will enforce.