A federal judge in Delaware has permanently blocked the state's bans on possessing and self-manufacturing so-called ghost guns, ruling on September 10 that both prohibitions violate the Second Amendment. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware entered final judgment in Rigby v. Jennings, granting the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment in part and rejecting Delaware's defense of its statutes under the Supreme Court's Bruen framework.

The case targeted Delaware House Bill 125, enacted in 2021, which broadly criminalized the possession, manufacture, and distribution of unserialized firearms and unfinished frames and receivers, including 3D-printed guns. Judge Noreika concluded that Delaware's ban on possessing unserialized firearms and certain unfinished frames or receivers violates the Second Amendment. The court held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms includes an ancillary right to acquire arms, and that cutting off self-manufacture restricts that protected right. Firearms Policy Coalition, which brought the suit alongside two private plaintiffs, called the ruling a complete victory on the core possesion and manufacturing claims.

Not everything in H.B. 125 was struck down. The court left intact the commercial distribution restrictions — prohibitions on selling, transferring, or distributing unserialized firearms through commercial channels — finding those survived constitutional scrutiny. The court also upheld Delaware's ban on distributing computer-aided-design files and instructions for 3D-printed firearms, following a Third Circuit ruling from earlier in 2026 that held computer code in that context is not automatically protected speech under the First Amendment.

The decision arrives at a moment when ghost gun litigation is active in multiple circuits. The ATF's 2022 frames-and-receivers rule, which extended serialization requirements to certain unfinished components, has been under challenge in the Fifth Circuit. In May 2026 the Supreme Court upheld the rule's core framework in Bondi v. VanDerStok, but state-level possession bans — like Delaware's — present a separate constitutional question the Bondi ruling did not address. Judge Noreika's decision is the first final merits ruling in a Third Circuit district to strike down a state ghost gun possession law on Second Amendment grounds.

Delaware's attorney general can appeal to the Third Circuit, a path that would set up a direct confrontation with the earlier court decision upholding the instruction ban. Gun-rights organizations watching the case say any appeal will be closely monitored; an adverse Third Circuit ruling could set up a circuit split with other courts addressing similar state restrictions. The case file remains open until any appeal is resolved.