---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 7 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO A CERTAIN USE OF A HANDGUN."
description: "This bill allows a hunter to use a handgun in lieu of a shotgun on farms permitted by DNREC through their Deer depredation programs to reduce agricultural crop damage."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "SB 31"
citation: "Delaware SB 31 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["F. Gary Simpson", "William R. Outten"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-03-16"
last_action: "2018-04-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ccfbc029-a5e6-4ac1-94fb-186c3a63fad5"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25461"
source_hash: "67f010b4ede499503c3632bc1207b9311c32604aaebe8c929aa3517f641281e0"
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 SB 31 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 7 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO A CERTAIN USE OF A HANDGUN.

This bill allows a hunter to use a handgun in lieu of a shotgun on farms permitted by DNREC through their Deer depredation programs to reduce agricultural crop damage.

## 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=25461&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB31)

## Votes

- SM — **38–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **18–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- F. Gary Simpson — primary (person)
- William R. Outten — primary (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Daniel B. Short — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Harvey R. Kenton — cosponsor (person)
- Jeff N. Spiegelman — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — cosponsor (person)
- Richard G. Collins — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Charles Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-03-16** Introduced and Assigned to Environmental, Natural Resources & Energy Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-05** Reported Out of Committee (Environmental, Natural Resources & Energy) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2017-04-05** Amendment SA 1 to SB 31 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2017-04-06** Amendment SA 1 to SB 31 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 18 YES 3 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2017-04-06** Passed By Senate. Votes: 18 YES 3 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-04-13** Assigned to Natural Resources Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-10** Reported Out of Committee (Natural Resources) in House with 7 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-03-29** Passed By House. Votes: 38 YES 3 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-04-17** 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/ccfbc029-a5e6-4ac1-94fb-186c3a63fad5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).