Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club, Ltd.; Mark Hester; John R. Sylvester; Marshall Kenneth Watkins; Barbara Boyce, Dhsc…

Summary

The court reversed the Superior Court and held that the regulations imposing a near-total ban on firearm possession in Delaware state parks and forests violate Article I, Section 20 of the Delaware Constitution. The regulations eliminate the core right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms for self-defense outside the home, and the agencies failed both to justify the restrictions under intermediate scrutiny and to establish statutory authority to impose them. The dissent, authored by Chief Justice Strine and joined by Justice Seitz, would have upheld the regulations as valid restrictions on firearm possession on government property and, alternatively, under heightened scrutiny.