republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-451.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FIREARMS.	This bill makes a person under the age of 21 prohibited from purchasing, owning, possessing, or controlling a firearm or ammunition of a firearm except under limited circumstances. Those circumstances are if the person is 18 years of age or older and an active member of the Armed Forces, a qualified law-enforcement officer, or has a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon. The Act does not apply to shotguns and shotgun ammunition, muzzle-loading rifles, and deadly weapons other than firearms, thus allowing those persons who are 18 to 21 years of age to purchase, own, control or possess such deadly weapons. Persons under the age of 21 may possess or control a firearm for the purpose of engaging in lawful hunting, instruction, sporting, or recreational activity while under the direct supervision of a person 21 year of age or older. This bill also makes changes to § 1445 of Title 11—Unlawfully dealing with a dangerous weapon to be consistent with the changes made to § 1448 of Title 11. In addition, the bill only criminalizes the control of a weapon which by compressed air or by spring discharges or projects a pellet, slug, or bullet by a person who is not a qualified law enforcement officer if such pellet, slug, or bullet is larger than .177 caliber shot.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	HB 451	Delaware HB 451 (151)	bill		enacted	Bryan Townsend David P. Sokola Debra Heffernan John L. Mitchell Paul S. Baumbach Peter C. Schwartzkopf S. Elizabeth Lockman Sherry Dorsey Walker Stephanie T. Bolden Valerie Longhurst	5	30	3	2022-06-02	2022-06-30	openstates	ocd-bill/dfe61dbf-9037-4fed-8df7-7ec1b719703f	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=109608	8a244252fdea65e5f846629625e29fd53793aab1bd056c88917319ef84f946aa	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 451 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FIREARMS.

This bill makes a person under the age of 21 prohibited from purchasing, owning, possessing, or controlling a firearm or ammunition of a firearm except under limited circumstances. Those circumstances are if the person is 18 years of age or older and an active member of the Armed Forces, a qualified law-enforcement officer, or has a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon. The Act does not apply to shotguns and shotgun ammunition, muzzle-loading rifles, and deadly weapons other than firearms, thus allowing those persons who are 18 to 21 years of age to purchase, own, control or possess such deadly weapons. Persons under the age of 21 may possess or control a firearm for the purpose of engaging in lawful hunting, instruction, sporting, or recreational activity while under the direct supervision of a person 21 year of age or older. This bill also makes changes to § 1445 of Title 11—Unlawfully dealing with a dangerous weapon to be consistent with the changes made to § 1448 of Title 11. In addition, the bill only criminalizes the control of a weapon which by compressed air or by spring discharges or projects a pellet, slug, or bullet by a person who is not a qualified law enforcement officer if such pellet, slug, or bullet is larger than .177 caliber shot.

Version chain

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

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source
2. HA 3 to HB 451 (committee substitute) — source
3. HA 6 to HB 451 (committee substitute) — source
4. HA 8 to HB 451 (committee substitute) — source
5. SA 2 to HB 451 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 14–7 (pass) · upper
• SM — 24–15 (pass) · lower
• SM — 27–13 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
• David P. Sokola — primary (person)
• Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
• John L. Mitchell — primary (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
• Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
• S. Elizabeth Lockman — primary (person)
• Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
• Stephanie T. Bolden — primary (person)
• Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
• Charles "Bud" M. Freel — cosponsor (person)
• David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
• Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
• Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
• Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
• John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
• Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
• Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
• Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
• Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
• Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
• Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
• Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — cosponsor (person)
• Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
• Sean Matthews — cosponsor (person)
• Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2022-06-02 Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-06-08 Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 3 Favorable committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 3 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 1 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 2 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 4 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 5 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 6 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 7 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 8 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 1 to HB 451 - Stricken in House
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 2 to HB 451 - Defeated By House. Votes: 18 YES 22 NO 1 ABSENT amendment-failure
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 3 to HB 451 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 4 to HB 451 - Defeated By House. Votes: 17 YES 23 NO 1 NOT VOTING amendment-failure
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 5 to HB 451 - Defeated By House. Votes: 17 YES 23 NO 1 NOT VOTING amendment-failure
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 6 to HB 451 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 7 to HB 451 - Defeated In House by Voice Vote amendment-failure
• 2022-06-14 Amendment HA 8 to HB 451 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2022-06-14 Passed By House. Votes: 27 YES 13 NO 1 ABSENT passage
• 2022-06-14 Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2022-06-15 Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2022-06-16 Laid On Table in Senate
• 2022-06-28 Lifted From Table in Senate
• 2022-06-28 Amendment SA 1 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-28 Amendment SA 2 to HB 451 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2022-06-28 Amendment SA 1 to HB 451 - Defeated By Senate. Votes: 7 YES 13 NO 1 NOT VOTING amendment-failure
• 2022-06-28 Amendment SA 2 to HB 451 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES amendment-passage
• 2022-06-28 Passed By Senate. Votes: 14 YES 7 NO passage
• 2022-06-28 Passed By House. Votes: 24 YES 15 NO 2 ABSENT passage
• 2022-06-30 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/dfe61dbf-9037-4fed-8df7-7ec1b719703f. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).