I grew up hunting and fishing with my father. There were times I was bored off my butt, sitting in a boat, saying nothing, just waiting for a fish to bite, but in hindsight, those are the moments that stick out to me now that Dad is gone. It was something we shared.
But hunting was solitary. It might be freezing cold, and I might have gone into the woods with Dad, but it was the first taste of responsibility. I already knew the damage a .303 British round could inflict, at least to some degree, and being trusted with it was great.
In Delaware, though, that didn’t happen for minors until a court issued a ruling. Yeah, the rules are schizophrenic now, but the state’s hunting regulations reflect the change. At least, to a point.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s (DNREC) Division of Fish and Wildlife has updated Delaware hunting guidance concerning direct supervision impacting 18- to 20-year old hunters after a state Supreme Court ruling struck down an earlier state Superior Court decision that allowed 18- to 20-year-old hunters to hunt without direct supervision when using a range of hunting firearms. The new court ruling reinstates some restrictions, though another court case is still pending.
The high court reversal pertains to House Bill 451, a 2022 law amending the age in which a person can possess, purchase and sell a firearm in Delaware. The law, which had a three-year grace period for full enactment, did not specifically focus on hunting and is still under a federal court challenge. Some of its provisions regarding supervised and unsupervised hunting have been affected by House Substitute 1 for House Bill 427, which passed into law earlier this year. That law allows 16- to 17-year-old hunters to hunt without direct supervision if certain requirements are met: if they have permission from a parent or guardian, have completed an approved basic hunter education course and are in possession of a valid hunting license.
The high court’s ruling on HB 451 came almost a year after a state Superior Court determined that Delaware’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms extended to all Delawareans aged 18 or older – eliminating a provision in Delaware Code from a 2022 law that stated 18- to 20-year-old hunters would require direct supervision from a person age 21 or older when the state’s 2025-26 hunting seasons opened.
The rules, as presented, say a 16-year-old can be trusted with a high-powered rifle all by their lonesome if the parents grant permission and are licensed to hunt, which also implies a hunter safety certificate. Then, when they turn 18, suddenly they’re relegated to only using certain pistol calibers out of their rifles.
Again, this is stupid. This is so dumb that it makes AOC look like Albert Einstein.
People don’t lose maturity as they get older. If a 16-year-old is mature enough to hunt solo, then how is he or she less mature when they turn 18? Why is it that they need supervision if they want to use an actual hunting rifle to take down deer when he or she didn’t need that direct supervision a couple of years earlier?
Honestly, they made it official, and it’s just as dumb as it was when the courts made their rulings here.
I’d ask you to make it make sense, but I don’t like to ask for the impossible.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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