DOVER, Del. – A federal judge has declined to implement an immediate injunction that would have temporarily halted Delaware\u2019s new permit to purchase handgun law from taking effect this weekend, according to court documents acquired by WBOC.<\/p>\n
The Permit to Purchase law was first enacted<\/a> in May of 2024 and requires anyone looking to buy or transfer a gun to first obtain a handgun purchaser permit. Obtaining that permit requires fingerprinting, a criminal background check, and completion of a firearms training course.<\/p>\n Delawareans who already have a Concealed Carry Deadly Weapon license would not be subject to the permit application process.<\/p>\n The controversial law has drawn heavy criticism<\/a> from gun rights advocates long before it was passed. Supporters have touted the measure as a step towards reducing gun violence in the First State. It was slated to take effect on Nov. 16, 2025, giving the state time to hammer out the details of the application process<\/a> and allowing Delawareans to prepare.<\/p>\n 13 days before the law was officially implemented, several plaintiffs, including the Delaware State Sportsmen\u2019s Association, the Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club, and BKK Firearms launched a lawsuit against the state, arguing the permit to purchase law violates the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n Due to the short amount of time between the lawsuit\u2019s filing and the date of implementation, plaintiffs quickly requested the federal judge overseeing the case to implement an expedited injunction, to block the law from going into effect on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n US District Court Judge Mayellen Noreika gave a deadline of 12 p.m. on Friday for both the defendants and the plaintiffs to submit final filings in her consideration of an injunction, saying a ruling would be issued in due course.<\/p>\n The request for the injunction focused heavily on the plaintiffs who sell guns, according to court documents.<\/p>\n In their filing, plaintiffs doubled down on their argument that the new law violated the Second Amendment. The constitutional right, the plaintiffs argued, also applies to those who sell guns, and the new law violated the rights of arms dealers along with those who want to purchase a handgun.<\/p>\n Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jenning\u2019s office refuted the claim, saying the plaintiffs had \u201cno cognizable Second Amendment \u2018right to sell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Just after 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 14, less than 31 hours before the law went into effect, Judge Noreika declined to place an injunction.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the Court finds that Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate likelihood of success on the merits, it need not evaluate the other factors of the analysis: irreparable harm, balancing of the equites, and public interest,\u201d Noreika concludes in her order.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs\u2019 motion for a preliminary injunction is denied.\u201d<\/p>\n Delaware\u2019s Permit to Purchase Law is now slated to officially be implemented on Sunday. Meanwhile, the litigation against it will continue in US District Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOVER, Del. – A federal judge has declined to implement an immediate injunction that would have temporarily halted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16676,106414,4,450,153003,153005,2831,153004,10846,68778,153000,451,15605,153006,8640,153009,3,153008,153007,452,453,153001,48196,72425,153002],"class_list":["post-292133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-attorney-general","tag-baltimore-county","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-bridgeville-rifle-pistol-club","tag-controversial-law","tag-delaware","tag-delaware-state-sportsmens-association","tag-dover","tag-federal-judge","tag-gun-politics-in-the-united-states","tag-headlines","tag-judge","tag-kathy-jenning","tag-maryland","tag-mayellen-noreika","tag-news","tag-purchase-handgun-law","tag-purchase-law","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states-firearms-law","tag-us-district-court","tag-wboc","tag-woollard-v-gallagher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}