---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CERTAIN CRIMES."
description: "This bill permits judges to utilize their discretion in determining whether a juvenile charged with possession of a firearm during commission of a felony should be transferred back to Family Court or remain in Superior Court. Prior to 2017, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony was only one of five criminal charges where judges had no discretion in determining whether a juvenile should be treated as a juvenile or an adult because the statute required a juvenile charged with these offenses to be prosecuted as an adult. House Bill 9, which was enacted last year, provided judges the discretion to determine how a juvenile should be treated for four other offenses. This is a continuation of that effort."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 306"
citation: "Delaware HB 306 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Charles Potter Jr.", "Debra Heffernan", "Harris B. McDowell", "James Johnson", "Margaret Rose Henry", "Sean M. Lynn", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 10
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-01-23"
last_action: "2018-05-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/542ec22e-07d8-4e79-b14c-9ddec9763f58"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26278"
source_hash: "73b653eed84d167c68f0e54aa351f9b08f0c2a08e4d741db7b862ecff12a9b19"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 306 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CERTAIN CRIMES.

This bill permits judges to utilize their discretion in determining whether a juvenile charged with possession of a firearm during commission of a felony should be transferred back to Family Court or remain in Superior Court. Prior to 2017, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony was only one of five criminal charges where judges had no discretion in determining whether a juvenile should be treated as a juvenile or an adult because the statute required a juvenile charged with these offenses to be prosecuted as an adult. House Bill 9, which was enacted last year, provided judges the discretion to determine how a juvenile should be treated for four other offenses. This is a continuation of that effort.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26278&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB306)

## Votes

- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Charles Potter Jr. — primary (person)
- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — primary (person)
- James Johnson — primary (person)
- Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-23** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-03-28** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 7 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-04-17** Amendment HA 1 to HB 306 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-04-17** Amendment HA 1 to HB 306 - Stricken in House
- **2018-04-17** Amendment HA 2 to HB 306 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-04-17** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2018-04-18** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-25** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-05-03** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 NO `passage`
- **2018-05-24** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/542ec22e-07d8-4e79-b14c-9ddec9763f58`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).