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

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FIREARMS."
description: "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."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 451"
citation: "Delaware HB 451 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["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"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 30
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2022-06-02"
last_action: "2022-06-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/dfe61dbf-9037-4fed-8df7-7ec1b719703f"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=109608"
source_hash: "8a244252fdea65e5f846629625e29fd53793aab1bd056c88917319ef84f946aa"
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 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](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=109608&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB451)
2. **HA 3 to HB 451** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=129701&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
3. **HA 6 to HB 451** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=129704&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
4. **HA 8 to HB 451** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=129709&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
5. **SA 2 to HB 451** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=129854&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## 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](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/dfe61dbf-9037-4fed-8df7-7ec1b719703f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).