Delaware Law Now Requires Training and a Permission Slip To Buy a Handgun

Delaware just crossed a line that attorney William Kirk says drops the state “into the depths of hell of civilian disarmament.”

On his Washington Gun Law channel, Kirk walks viewers through a new law that took effect this week, turning a simple handgun purchase into a multi-step process that looks a lot more like asking the state for permission than exercising a constitutional right.

Reporter Maegan Summers of WBOC lays out the nuts and bolts: under Delaware’s new Permit to Purchase law, anyone who lives in the state and wants to buy a handgun now has to get a special “handgun qualified purchaser permit” before they can walk out of a gun store with a pistol.

It’s not optional. And it’s not cheap.

What Delaware’s New “Permission Slip” Actually Requires

Kirk explains that the law comes from Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 2, which he calls one of the “most nefarious forms of gun control” because it forces citizens to secure government approval before they can buy a gun at all.

According to the Delaware State Police information he cites, and as Summers reports, the process for that handgun permit looks like this:

• Take an 8-hour firearms training course with a certified instructor.
• Fire at least 100 rounds of ammunition in live fire training.
• Get fingerprinted through Identogo by appointment.
• Pass a background check as part of the application.

Then, when you finally go to buy the handgun, the gun store still runs the standard federal background check like always.

Kirk points out the obvious: Delaware residents now have to “undergo a background check so that you can then undergo a background check.”

From a gun-rights perspective, that redundancy isn’t a safety feature.

It’s friction.

Who Has To Get the Permit – And Who Does Not

Summers notes that every Delaware resident who wants to buy a handgun and does not already have a Concealed Carry Deadly Weapon (CCDW) license now has to apply for this new permit.

If you already have a CCDW license issued by the Delaware Superior Court, you are exempt from the permit requirement.

You can still walk into a shop and buy a handgun the old way without this extra layer.

Non-Delaware residents are also outside the permit system, Summers explains, because federal law already requires them to buy handguns through an FFL in their home state.

Kirk emphasizes that the state has also carved out a long list of professional and “in-the-club” exemptions from the training piece.

Summers lists them this way:

• Qualified law enforcement officers and qualified retired law enforcement.
• Sheriffs and deputy sheriffs.
• CCDW license holders.
• Federal firearms licensees and Delaware deadly weapons dealers.
• Armored car guards and licensed security personnel.
• Licensed constables in Delaware.
• Delaware correctional officers.
• Active-duty military and National Guard members.
• NRA-certified instructors.
• People with a valid Delaware hunter safety certification.
• Competitive shooters with valid classification cards from NRA, IDPA, IPSC, or USPSA.

Kirk underlines that if you’re in one of those categories, you can skip the mandatory class.

If you’re just an ordinary citizen who wants a bedside handgun, you can’t.

That double standard is exactly what critics of permit-to-purchase systems complain about: the law hits regular people the hardest, while insiders, government employees, and trained competitors step around it.

The Training Curriculum – Safety or Barrier?

Kirk reads through the curriculum spelled out in the law, which Summers confirms is an 8-hour block.

It has some very reasonable pieces, at least on paper.

The required course must include:

• Safe handling and safe storage of firearms and ammunition.
• Child safety around guns and ammo.
• Basic shooting fundamentals and range time with at least 100 rounds fired.
• How to maintain and improve firearm skills.
• Federal and state law on purchase, transport, use, and possession of firearms.
• State law on use of deadly force.
• Techniques to avoid criminal attack and manage violent confrontations.
• Suicide prevention.

Kirk doesn’t argue that education is bad.

He argues that forced education as a precondition to exercising a right is a different animal.

From his perspective, this type of mandate turns a right into a licensed privilege, especially when you add mandatory fingerprints, extra background checks, and recurring costs every time the permit expires.

Summers reports that local gun-shop owner Jennifer Hagan, who co-owns Best Shot in Lewes, already sees the cost side clearly.

She estimates the law will add about $300 to the overall experience of buying a handgun by the time you tally the course, ammo, prints, and fees.

“If they want to buy a firearm and get some training, that’s fine, but it should not be forced on people,” Hagan tells WBOC.

“Owning a gun is a constitutional right. You should be able to bear arms, and you shouldn’t have to have a permit to do that.”

How Long It Lasts – And Who Can Be Denied

Kirk notes that once you jump through all of these hoops, your “handgun qualified purchaser permit” is only good for two years.

After that, you have to go back through the process again if you want to keep buying handguns.

The law says Delaware State Police “shall issue” permits to eligible applicants, but Kirk digs into what “eligible” really means.

You can be denied if:

• You are already prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law.
• You are under 21 years old.
• Or, and this is the fuzzy part, if there is probable cause that you are a danger of causing physical injury to yourself or others by owning or purchasing firearms.

He flags that last clause as a major problem.

In his view, it turns what should be objective criteria into a subjective judgment call by the issuing authority based on allegations, not necessarily convictions.

For newer residents, Summers explains, the State Bureau of Identification has to reach out to prior jurisdictions if you’ve lived in Delaware less than five years, chasing down “facts and circumstances” about you before issuing a permit.

Kirk’s concern is that the more discretionary and complicated the system becomes, the easier it is to quietly deny or delay people who haven’t done anything wrong – but don’t have the time or money to fight the bureaucracy.

Supporters Say It Will Reduce “Impulsive” Gun Violence

It’s not just gun-rights voices in the conversation.

Summers interviews Traci Murphy, executive director of the Coalition for a Safer Delaware, who strongly supports the law.

Murphy tells WBOC that when advocates look at states with the “lowest gun violence across the nation,” permit-to-purchase policies are the “one policy they all have in common.”

In her view, that makes this law a proven tool in the toolbox.

She argues the built-in time and friction are the point.

“What this policy does that will impact firearm homicide and firearm suicide the most is keep firearms out of impulsive hands,” Murphy says.

From that perspective, the delay is a feature, not a bug.

If someone is angry, suicidal, or in crisis, forcing them to schedule training, wait for prints, and clear a separate permit process may cool them off or stop them entirely.

Gun-rights advocates like Kirk flip that logic around.

They argue that the same delay can leave a stalking victim, single mom, or targeted small-business owner essentially disarmed for weeks while they wait on the state to bless their decision to protect themselves.

Both sides are talking about risk.

They just disagree about who should carry it.

Lawsuits, Business Fallout, And What Comes Next

Unsurprisingly, the law is already in court.

Summers reports that the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association has sued, claiming the permit requirement violates the Second Amendment and that the state simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to process permits efficiently.

A judge denied their request for a temporary block, so the law took effect on schedule, but the case is now on appeal in federal court.

Kirk points out that a last-minute attempt to get an injunction also failed, which is why he tells Delaware viewers, “This is your new reality.”

He frames it as part of a broader trend in which states like Illinois, California, and New York use licensing power to yank rights “on just about any type of arbitrary and capricious reason.”

On the ground, Summers shows how the law is already hitting small businesses.

Hagan says handgun traffic at her store “dramatically” dropped after the permit rule went live.

Her fear now is that she may have to lay off staff or cut hours if demand keeps sliding.

Before implementation, she saw a brief surge of customers racing to buy handguns before the deadline – another sign that regular people know this isn’t just paperwork.

It changes access.

A Right, A License, And A Warning To Other States

Kirk closes his video by calling Delaware “the gates of hell” for adopting a permit-to-purchase system he sees as “civilian disarmament.”

He tells viewers to read the bill themselves and warns that once these systems are in place, they rarely get rolled back without a court battle.

Summers, from a straight-news angle, shows the split clearly: safety advocates like Murphy see the law as a life-saving filter, while gun-shop owners and groups like the Sportsmen’s Association see it as a constitutional overreach and an economic hit.

From a broader perspective, this law is more than a local technical change.

It’s a test case in a post–Bruen world where courts are still sorting out how far states can go in layering licensing and training on top of a recognized individual right.

If Delaware’s permit scheme survives those challenges, other states watching from the sidelines will notice.

If it gets struck down, that will send just as loud a message.

For now, the practical bottom line is simple:

If you’re a Delaware resident without a CCDW or listed exemption and you want to buy a handgun, you are no longer just shopping.

You’re applying.

You’re training.

You’re waiting.

And as William Kirk and Maegan Summers both make clear in their own ways, that shift – from purchase to permission – may be the most important part of this story.