Delaware does not ban every item the National Firearms Act regulates; it bans a short, specific list. The controlling statute is 11 Del. C. § 1444, and...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Delaware does not ban every item the National Firearms Act regulates; it bans a short, specific list. The controlling statute is 11 Del. C. § 1444, and it names six things: a bomb, a bombshell, a firearm silencer, a sawed-off shotgun, a machine gun or any other firearm or weapon adaptable for use as a machine gun, and a bump stock, trigger crank, or rapid fire device. Anything outside that list is not prohibited by § 1444. Do not assume the state bans an item because federal law taxes and registers it.
Read the verb list. Under § 1444(a) you commit the offense if you make, sell, transfer, buy, receive, or possess a listed item, so mere possession is enough. A CCDW license under § 1441 covers the concealed carrying of a deadly weapon and changes nothing here, because § 1444 writes no license exception.
Machine guns. Banned in Delaware. Section 1444(a)(5) covers a machine gun and any other firearm or weapon adaptable for use as a machine gun. Delaware's definition at § 1444(c)(1) tracks the federal one at 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b): any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger, plus the frame or receiver, conversion parts, and any combination of parts from which a machine gun can be assembled while in your possession or control. Federally, 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)(1) makes it unlawful to transfer or possess a machinegun, excepting at § 922(o)(2)(B) one lawfully possessed before that subsection took effect on May 19, 1986 (Pub. L. 99-308, § 102(9)). A knowing violation of § 922(o) carries a fine and imprisonment of not more than 10 years under 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(2). A post-1986 machine gun also cannot be registered to a private person: under 27 C.F.R. § 479.105(a), "notwithstanding any other provision of this part, no application to make, transfer, or import a machine gun will be approved except as provided by this section," and the routes it provides are government and dealer sales sample channels, not private ones. Possessing an unregistered one therefore also violates 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), punishable under § 5871 by a fine of not more than $10,000, imprisonment of not more than ten years, or both. A pre-1986 transferable machine gun with a valid federal registration is still a class E felony in Delaware under § 1444(b)(1). A federal tax stamp is not a defense.
Suppressors. Banned in Delaware. Section 1444(a)(3) names a firearm silencer flatly, with no hunting exception and no permit that authorizes one. Federally a silencer is an NFA firearm under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(7), defined by reference to 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(25), which reaches not just the finished can but any combination of parts designed or intended for assembling one and any part intended only for that use. Delaware defines no term in § 1444(c) other than machine gun, shotgun, and sawed-off shotgun, so the reach of the state ban over silencer parts is not settled by the text.
Short-barreled shotguns. Banned in Delaware. Section 1444(a)(4) prohibits a sawed-off shotgun, and § 1444(c)(3) defines it as a shotgun having one or more barrels less than 18 inches in length, or any weapon made from a shotgun if the weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches. That is close to the federal definition at 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(1) and (a)(2) and 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(6). One wrinkle: the predicate definition of "shotgun" at § 1444(c)(2) requires a weapon designed or redesigned and intended to be fired from the shoulder. Whether a factory pistol-grip smoothbore that never had a shoulder stock falls inside § 1444(c)(2) is unanswered.
Short-barreled rifles. Not named in § 1444. Check the assault weapon ban instead. Section 1444(a) lists six items and an SBR is not among them. Do not read the destructive weapon statute to cover one. The live restriction is 11 Del. C. § 1466(a): unlawful to transport an assault weapon into Delaware, or to manufacture, sell, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, receive, or possess one. The workhorse test is 11 Del. C. § 1465(6)a., which defines a "copycat weapon" to include "[a] semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has at least 1 of the following": a folding or telescoping stock; a grip, such as a pistol grip or thumbhole stock, that puts a non-trigger finger of the trigger hand below the action when firing; a forward pistol grip; a flash suppressor; or a grenade or flare launcher. Section 1465(6)b. adds a second test, "[a] semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an overall length of less than 30 inches," which turns on measured overall length, not barrel length. An AR-pattern SBR whose overall length with the stock extended exceeds 30 inches falls outside the (6)b. prong, and the (6)a. feature test is what reaches it. A rimfire or bolt-action short-barreled rifle is outside both definitions on the face of the statute, because each prong requires a semiautomatic, centerfire rifle. Under § 1466(d) a violation is a class D felony. The catchline reads "class E or F felony," which conflicts with the penalty subsection; treat § 1466(d) as controlling and confirm the grading before relying on either. Federally an SBR is an NFA firearm under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a)(3) and (a)(4) and must be registered under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d).
Destructive devices. Delaware bans two of them by name, not the federal category. Section 1444(a)(1) and (a)(2) reach a bomb and a bombshell. The federal category at 26 U.S.C. § 5845(f) and 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(4) is far wider, covering grenades, rockets with a propellant charge over four ounces, missiles with an explosive or incendiary charge over one quarter ounce, mines, and any weapon with a bore greater than one half inch other than a sporting shotgun. Section 1444 does not name those. A separate statute, 11 Del. C. § 1338(b), makes it a class D felony to manufacture, transfer, use, possess, or transport any bomb, incendiary device, Molotov cocktail, or device designed to explode or produce uncontained combustion with intent to cause bodily harm or property damage, and § 1338(d) treats possession as prima facie evidence of that intent. Federal-category items Delaware does not name remain subject to registration under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) and the $200 making and transfer tax.
Any other weapons. Not named in Delaware law. No subsection of § 1444(a) uses the term, and the definitions at § 1444(c) do not reach the federal concept at 26 U.S.C. § 5845(e), which covers concealable weapons firing a shot by explosive energy, smoothbore pistols firing a fixed shotgun shell, and certain combination guns. An AOW is therefore governed by federal registration under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), not by a Delaware ban. Watch a separate state trap: a disguised AOW such as a pen or cane gun can be a "covert firearm" under 11 Del. C. § 222(4), a firearm constructed in a shape or configuration such that it does not resemble a firearm. Possession is a class E felony under 11 Del. C. § 1462(c) and manufacturing is a class D felony under § 1462(d).
Bump stocks, trigger cranks, and rapid fire devices. These are a Delaware addition rather than an NFA category, covered by § 1444(a)(6) and defined at § 1444(a)(6)a. through c. Grading is separate: under § 1444(b)(2) a first offense of possession only is a class B misdemeanor, and a second or subsequent offense is a class E felony. Section 1444(e)(1) directs that such a device be relinquished to a Delaware law-enforcement agency, which may destroy it 30 days later, and § 1444(e)(2) says relinquishment is neither a transfer nor evidence of possession.
Section 1444(b)(1) holds both the grading rule and all of the section's carve-outs, and its two sentences are written to different scopes. The first: "Possessing a destructive weapon listed in paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(5) of this section is a class E felony." The second: "This section does not apply to members of the military forces or to members of a police force in this State duly authorized to carry a weapon of the type described." The grading sentence is limited to paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(5). The exception sentence is written against "[t]his section," which on its face would also reach the (a)(6) bump stock, trigger crank, and rapid fire device offenses that § 1444(b)(2) grades separately. Placement inside (b)(1) points the other way. The text does not resolve it, so treat the reach of these carve-outs as genuinely unsettled.
Beyond the military and police carve-out quoted above, the section exempts:
There is no licensed-dealer exception in § 1444. The Attorney General's CCDW page states that Delaware prohibits possession of silencers, sawed-off shotguns, and machine guns "under all circumstances," which reads more absolutely than § 1444(b)(1). The statute controls. Delaware's LEOSA statutes are not a workaround either: 11 Del. C. § 1441A(e)(3) and § 1441B(e)(1)c. both define "firearm" to exclude machineguns, firearm silencers, and destructive devices, so neither an active nor a retired qualified officer carries NFA items under them.
Section 1466 is the statute with real dealer and institutional exceptions. Its applicability list at § 1466(b) runs nine paragraphs:
Section 1466(c) adds five more exceptions, including the § 1466(c)(3) grandfather for possession or a completed purchase predating June 30, 2022, confined to the owner's residence, place of business, or other owned property (or another person's with express permission), a shooting range, and qualifying firearms exhibitions, plus secure-storage transport between those places or to a licensed dealer under § 1466(c)(3)d. Section 1467(b) makes it usable: in a prosecution under § 1466, "it is an affirmative defense that the defendant was lawfully in possession or had completed a purchase of the assault weapon prior to June 30, 2022." A certificate of possession is conclusive evidence of that fact. The § 1467(a) window to apply for one closed June 30, 2023, but the defense itself carries no certificate requirement.
None of that reaches a § 1444 item.
A class E felony under § 1444(b)(1) is punishable by up to 5 years at Level V under 11 Del. C. § 4205(b)(5). A class D felony under § 1466(d) or § 1338(b) carries up to 8 years under § 4205(b)(4). A class B misdemeanor first offense under § 1444(b)(2) carries up to 6 months and a fine up to $1,150 under 11 Del. C. § 4206(b). Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction over § 1444 offenses under § 1444(d).
Section 1444 is a designated violent felony under 11 Del. C. § 4201(c), which feeds the 3-year to 10-year Level V minimums that § 1448(e)(1) imposes on a prohibited person possessing a destructive weapon. And under 11 Del. C. § 1457(b)(2) and (j)(3), a § 1444 offense inside a Safe Recreation Zone rises one grade, from class E felony to class D.
For an item Delaware does not prohibit, federal law still governs, and it must be registered to you in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record: 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) makes receipt or possession of an unregistered NFA firearm unlawful, and § 5861(b), (c), and (f) reach receiving one transferred or made in violation of the chapter and making one without approval. Penalties run through 26 U.S.C. § 5871.
Tax amounts changed recently. Under 26 U.S.C. § 5811(a), as amended by Pub. L. 119-21, § 70436(a) (July 4, 2025), the transfer tax is $200 only for a machinegun or a destructive device and $0 for any other NFA firearm. Section 5821(a), as amended by § 70436(b), sets the making tax the same way, and both apply to calendar quarters beginning more than 90 days after July 4, 2025. The paperwork did not go away with the tax: under 27 C.F.R. § 479.85(a) an individual transferee still attaches to the Form 4 a 2 x 2 inch photograph taken within the prior year and two completed FBI Forms FD-258.
Moving certain items across state lines takes separate permission. Under 27 C.F.R. § 478.28(a) and (b), a non-licensee needs specific ATF authorization before transporting a destructive device, machine gun, short-barreled shotgun, or short-barreled rifle in interstate commerce, and the request must show that possession is not inconsistent with the law at the destination. For a Delaware destination, § 1444 and § 1466 are where that showing fails.
Consider someone moving to Delaware who lawfully owns a silencer, machine gun, or sawed-off shotgun elsewhere. Section 1444 offers no grandfather. Its subsections run: (a) prohibitions, (b) grading and carve-outs, (c) definitions, (d) Superior Court jurisdiction, (e) relinquishment expressly limited to paragraph (a)(6) devices, and (f) repealed. Nothing there preserves prior lawful possession or gives a new resident a transition period, and the § 1466(c)(3) grandfather is written for assault weapons, not for a § 1444 item. Resolve the item before the move.
One interpretive risk runs through all of this. Section 1444(a)(5) extends to any firearm or weapon "adaptable for use as a machine gun," a phrase the statute never defines. Read broadly it could reach parts and semiautomatic receivers well outside the § 1444(c)(1) definition.
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