With its March 19, 2014 decision in Doe v. Wilmington Housing Authority, the Delaware Supreme Court has protected public housing residents’ right to bear arms and ruled unconstitutional (under the Delaware Constitution) the Wilmington Housing Authority’s (WHA) ban on the display, use, and possession of firearms in WHA common areas, which ban was a part of tenant leases in its housing developments. The Delaware Supreme Court also considered WHA’s updated Firearms and Weapons Policy, which placed further regulations on resident gun owners such as requiring “reasonable” storage for their weapons and requiring residents to make their gun permits or licenses available for inspection upon request. Tenants were subject to eviction if they did not comply with these provisions.
While the District Court previously upheld the WHA measures as key to “important government interests” in protecting public safety, the Supreme Court overturned the decision. The Supreme Court was asked to determine the following:
- Does the Delaware Constitution allow WHA to prohibit residents (and household members and guests) from carrying firearms in common areas, except when the firearm is being transported to or from a resident’s housing unit or is being used in self-defense?
- Does the Delaware Constitution allow WHA to require residents to make their gun permits or licenses available for inspection upon request when there is reasonable cause to believe that the WHA policies have been violated?
Finding that the regulations within the leases and Weapons Policy overburdened residents’ right under the Delaware State Constitution to armed self-defense within their homes, the Court responded negatively to both questions. The Court cited “public attitudes, as reflected in the laws passed by the General Assembly, and Delaware’s long tradition of allowing responsible, law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms outside of the home” in favor of “recognizing an independent right under the Delaware Constitution” for its citizens to bear arms in the common areas of the WHA developments. The Court applied the intermediate scrutiny test, which considers public safety and other important governmental interests, but found that because “residents have a possessory interest in both their apartments and the common areas,” and because “their need for security in those areas is just as high for purposes of Section 20 [of the Delaware Constitution] as it would be inside their apartment or business. . . these restrictions are overbroad and burden the right to bear arms more than is reasonably necessary.”
The Delaware Supreme Court also found that because the policy allowing WHA to require residents to make their gun permits or licenses available for inspection upon request existed, as least in part, to enforce compliance with the restrictions on the use and possession of firearms within the common areas, this policy was also broad and unconstitutional.
Read the Court’s full opinion in Doe v. Wilmington Housing Authority.