Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Gun Rights for Public-Housing Tenants

In a decision issued Tuesday, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled
that a Wilmington public-housing authority violated the state
constitution’s right to keep and bear arms by forbidding
public-housing tenants from carrying otherwise lawful firearms in
common areas, such as in the laundry rooms of their buildings.
“With the Common Area Provision in force under penalty of
eviction,” the opinion in Boone v. Wilmington Housing
Authority declared, “reasonable, law-abiding adults become
disarmed and unable to repel an intruder by force in any common
living areas when the intervention of society on their behalf may
be too late to prevent an injury.”

The opinion rests in part on the U.S. Supreme Court’s rationale
in District
of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which recognized a “core”
Second Amendment right to possess a handgun in the home for
purposes of self-defense. The Wilmington restriction, the Delaware
Supreme Court argued, similarly undermined gun rights “by
functionally disallowing armed self-defense in areas that
Residents, their families, and guests may occupy as part of their
living space.”

The opinion in Boone v. Wilmington Housing Authority is
available here.