Delaware Concealed Carry Permit

GENUINELY UNSETTLED — do not treat as settled either way. On the books, Delaware bans building your own gun: 11 Del. C. § 1463(b) makes it a CLASS D FELONY to knowingly manufacture, assemble, or cause to be manufactured or assembled an 'untraceable firearm'; § 1463(a) makes mere possession of one a class E felony; § 1463(c)(1) makes it a class D felony to use a 3-D printer or similar device to manufacture or produce a firearm, firearm receiver, or major firearm component 'when not licensed as a manufacturer'; § 1463(c)(2) criminalizes distributing CAD files or code for 3-D printing a firearm to anyone not a licensed manufacturer. 'Untraceable firearm' is defined at 11 Del. C. § 222(40) as a firearm whose sale/distribution chain from a licensed retailer to the point of first retail sale cannot be traced by law enforcement, excluding pre-1968 firearms, black-powder muzzleloaders, and replicas of pre-1898 antiques. Section 1459A separately makes it a class D felony to transport, ship, transfer or sell an unfinished frame or receiver unless the person is an FFL dealer/manufacturer and the manufacturer's name and an individual serial number are conspicuously placed on it per 18 U.S.C. § 923(i) (§ 1459A(a)), and to possess an unfinished frame or receiver lacking that name and serial number (§ 1459A(b)). Delaware provides no state procedure for a private individual to obtain or apply a serial number to a self-made firearm. BUT: in Rigby v. Jennings, C.A. No. 21-1523-MN (D. Del.), Judge Maryellen Noreika's order of Sept. 23, 2022 (D.I. 39) preliminarily ENJOINED the Attorney General, 'her officers, agents, servants, employees, and all persons in active concert or participation with her, and all persons who have notice of the injunction' from enforcing § 1459A(b), § 1463(a), § 1463(c)(1), and § 1463(b) 'to the extent that the Court has found it likely unconstitutional (i.e. the statute's provisions that bar the manufacturing and assembly of untraceable firearms, but not the prohibitions against distributing untraceable firearms).' A permanent injunction was DENIED. Cross-motions for summary judgment remain pending — the docket's most recent entries are a Jan. 8, 2026 notice of supplemental authority and a Feb. 9, 2026 status-update letter — so no final judgment has issued and the preliminary injunction appears still to be in force. NOT enjoined and still enforceable: § 1459A(a) (you cannot buy, receive, ship or transfer an unserialized unfinished frame/receiver in Delaware), the distribution prong of § 1463(b) (you cannot sell or transfer a self-made untraceable firearm), § 1463(c)(2), and § 1462 (covert/undetectable firearms). Anyone relying on the injunction should confirm its current status with counsel before building anything.

11 Del. C. §§ 1459A, 1462, 1463; definitions at 11 Del. C. § 222(38), (40)

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What we could not confirm

• RECIPROCITY DATE: as of 2026-08-10 the Delaware DOJ CCDW page still captions its recognized-states list 'For the period from January 15, 2025 to January 15, 2026,' although the same page's instructor list was updated 6/16/2026 and 7/10/2026. I found no separately published January 15, 2026 list. Section 1441(j) forbids removing a state without one year's posted notice and the page states no removals were pending for January 15, 2026, so the 21 listed states are almost certainly still current — but the caption is stale and I could not confirm a 2026-2027 republication.
• MINIMUM AGE: no official Delaware page or form states a numeric minimum age. 18 is derived from § 1441's 'full age' plus 1 Del. C. § 701 and the § 1448(a)(5)b.3 carve-out for 18+ CCDW licensees. I could not confirm that Prothonotaries in fact accept applicants aged 18-20; someone in that band should call the Prothonotary before applying.
• PERMIT SYSTEM: Delaware remains statutorily discretionary ('The Court may or may not, in its discretion, approve any application' — § 1441(d)), still requires five character references attesting that carrying concealed is 'necessary,' and the current application form still demands a specific 'Reason for Application (Be VERY Specific).' The July 2026 instructions retain all of this. I found no official post-Bruen guidance, rule change, or reported Delaware decision eliminating the necessity showing or the Court's discretion. Approval is nonetheless the norm: FY2026 monthly court statistics show hundreds of approvals against single-digit to low-double-digit denials, with roughly 34,000 active licenses statewide.
• PROCESSING TIME: Delaware publishes no official average. The figures given are structural (the AG's 30-day response window under Rule 6, DOJ's own 'a few weeks' description, and the 90-day post-approval training deadline) plus the pending counts in the FY2026 statistics.
• HOME MANUFACTURE: whether the Rigby v. Jennings preliminary injunction is still operative today. The docket shows no order dissolving it and no final judgment, with cross-motions for summary judgment pending and the most recent entry a Feb. 9, 2026 status letter — but the RECAP mirror of PACER can lag, and a ruling may have issued since. Also unresolved: how Delaware would treat a self-made firearm that the maker voluntarily serializes, since the State offers no serialization procedure and 'untraceable' is defined by traceability to a licensed retailer's first retail sale, a test a self-made firearm can never satisfy.
• TRAINING HOURS: § 1441(a)(3) sets content and a 100-round live-fire minimum but no hour count; approved instructors set their own course length. Any specific hour figure would be fabricated.
• OPEN CARRY: no Delaware statute or official state page affirmatively states that open carry is lawful without a license; that conclusion rests on the absence of any licensing requirement outside § 1442's concealment element, and it is qualified by § 1448(a)(5) (under-21 possession bar) and municipal building/park restrictions under 22 Del. C. § 111, whose text I could not verify on an official Delaware Code page during this research.