Buried well into the text of a federal court ruling striking down Delaware’s ban on so-called “ghost guns” is a paragraph which literally guts an argument made by gun prohibitionists about unserialized firearms being a greater threat to public safety.
“Indeed, there is no record evidence here that untraceable or self-manufactured guns pose any danger that serialized or traditionally manufactured guns do not,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, a 2018 Donald Trump appointee. “If anything, the evidence tends to show that law-abiding citizens commonly use these types of firearms for self-defense.”
Judge Noreika quoted from another ruling, which stated, “The presence or absence of serial numbers on firearms has no effect on their functionality…”
The notion that somehow firearms pose a greater public safety risk appears to be an invention of the gun control crowd and their allies in Congress and state legislatures, whose ultimate goal is registration, and it’s tough to register an unserialized firearm.
As former talk radio host John Carlson repeatedly stated during his years at Seattle’s KVI-AM, “There are only two reasons to register firearms, to tax them and/or to take them.”
Another ruling, by U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning recently struck down New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period. A spokesperson for Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told The Source she will “almost certainly” appeal the ruling.
Two New Mexico residents, Paul Ortega and Rebecca Scott, with support from the National Rifle Association, sued over the waiting period. The Browning ruling applies to them, but it might lend some influence to an ongoing challenge of Maine’s relatively new waiting period.
The NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation have just submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court urging the court to grant review of a case known as Beckwith v. Frey. The case challenges Maine’s 72-hour waiting period, and opens with a compelling recount of the Berlin Township, New Jersey case of Carol Bowne. On June 3, 2015, after waiting 42 days with no action on her application for a gun permit—which state law required to have been acted upon within 30 days—Bowne was brutally murdered in her own driveway by ex-boyfriend Michael Eitel, against whom she had a no-contact order. The slaying and foot dragging by police made embarrassing national news.
As noted by a subhead in the NRA/SAF amicus brief, “Waiting Periods Are a Historical Anomaly, and Firearms Were Readily Available Even in the Founding Era.”
A ruling against Maine’s waiting period would have an impact on similar laws in other states—the wait in California and Washington is ten days, for example—making this case one of widespread importance.
Add to this expanding pattern of pro-rights rulings and briefs involving Second Amendment issues is the 2-1 Fifth Circuit panel decision that the federal ban on interstate handgun sales is unconstitutional. This ruling was reported by Ammoland News just days ago, and readers are reminded that—as was noted four years ago after the Supreme Court struck down New York’s century-old arbitrary “may issue” gun permit scheme—the finding that a law is unconstitutional doesn’t mean it is suddenly in violation, it was always in violation, and it is likely supporters of such laws know it. But here, as elsewhere, anti-gunners have been getting away with treating the Second Amendment as a second-class right.
Until now, that is.
Interestingly, the Delaware ruling got the attention of a radio talk host out in distant Washington state, where Democrat lawmakers have also passed legislation banning so-called “untraceable firearms,” or “ghost guns.” According to the report in Seattle Red, “a…review of the opinion shows Washington enforces nearly every provision (Judge) Noreika threw out, and the judge flagged the legal hurdle a challenge here would face.”
While the Delaware decision has no immediate or direct impact on Evergreen State gun laws, it sends a signal that, after more than 200 years—the Second Amendment might be growing some teeth.
This brings the discussion around to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s letter to Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials about the state’s laws on purchase permits and carry permits, which can delay someone from exercising their rights to keep and bear arms for 30 to even 60 days, as noted by Valley News in Fargo, N.D. As Dhillon stated in a post on ‘X,’ “A right delayed is a right denied. Minnesota cannot deny Americans the right to purchase commonly owned firearms with weeks-long waiting periods. The @CivilRights Division’s Second Amendment Section will challenge these violations of fundamental rights!”
NEWS: The Trump Justice Department is putting Minnesota on notice over firearm-purchase delays, arguing that residents in Minneapolis and St. Paul can be forced to wait too long before taking possession of commonly owned guns.
In a Sept. 17 letter to Gov. Tim Walz and the mayors… https://t.co/PKgOUy4XqJ
— MDBayNews (@MDBayNews) September 17, 2026
Successful legal action against Minnesota on these issues would also have an impact on similar restrictions in other states, again including California and Washington. The problem is a blue state issue. Where Democrats are in control, such laws have been popping up.
This is something grassroots Second Amendment activists are using to remind their lethargic gun-owning friends and neighbors to vote Nov. 3. A heavy turnout of “gun voters” could definitely tilt some elections and prevent anti-gunners from gaining or keeping power.
The time to turn the tide is fast approaching, and the fight over Second Amendment rights is not a spectator sport.
Delaware Judge Permanently Blocks Ban on Possessing and Making ‘Ghost Guns’
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
