Court rules unserialized firearms, frames and receivers are protected “Arms” and Delaware cannot ban peaceable people from making their own firearms
WILMINGTON, DE (September 10, 2026) — Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today a major Second Amendment victory in its Rigby v. Jennings lawsuit, with the United States District Court for the District of Delaware holding that the State’s bans on possessing and self-manufacturing so-called “ghost guns” are unconstitutional.
The decision comes nearly four years after FPC first secured a preliminary injunction against Delaware’s possession and home-manufacturing bans. In its new merits decision, the Court granted FPC’s motion for summary judgment in part and rejected Delaware’s effort to defend its prohibitions under the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment framework.
“Delaware tried to turn peaceable people into criminals for possessing firearms they lawfully made and owned. Today the court correctly held that the Second Amendment protects the People’s right to acquire arms by building them at home. Nearly four years after we secured a preliminary injunction against these bans, we now have a merits ruling holding them unconstitutional. This is a key victory on the road to securing nationwide protection for the right to self-manufacture arms,” said FPC President Brandon Combs.
In its opinion, the Rigby Court firmly rejected Delaware’s argument that unserialized firearms and unfinished frames and receivers fall outside the Second Amendment. As the Court explained, an unserialized firearm “is an Arm under the Second Amendment” and “all firearms constitute ‘arms,’ whether serialized or not.” The Court likewise held that firearm frames and receivers are protected “Arms,” explaining that “the constitutional understanding of ‘Arms’ does not turn on serialization.”
The decision also recognizes important constitutional protection for firearm self-manufacturing. Because the right to keep arms necessarily protects the ability to acquire them, the Court concluded that Delaware’s manufacturing and assembly ban burdens Second Amendment-protected conduct by eliminating self-manufacturing as one means of acquiring a firearm. The Court further explained that the right to possess an operable firearm necessarily protects related activities such as disassembly, cleaning, repair, and reassembly.
Delaware also failed to justify its bans under the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The State relied on historical restrictions involving clubs and knives, trap guns and unusually large firearms, and gunpowder storage. The Court found those regulations materially different from Delaware’s modern bans and concluded that none were sufficiently analogous in either how or why they burdened protected conduct.
Importantly, the Court observed that Delaware’s own evidence did not show that unserialized or self-manufactured firearms function differently from serialized firearms or pose dangers that other firearms do not. Instead, the record showed that peaceable citizens use self-manufactured and unserialized firearms for lawful purposes including self-defense. The Court ultimately held that Delaware’s Possession Ban and Manufacturing and Assembly Ban are facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional as applied to the plaintiffs.
The Rigby victory was built in part on FPC’s landmark en banc Third Circuit win in Cheeseman v. Davenport. In Cheeseman, the full Third Circuit held that semiautomatic rifles the State called “assault weapons” are protected “Arms,” rejected New Jersey’s attempt to rely on late and inapt historical analogues, and reinforced that commonly possessed arms cannot be categorically banned. The Rigby court repeatedly relied on that controlling precedent in rejecting Delaware’s arguments and striking down its possession and manufacturing bans.
“This victory shows our strategy at work: We fought for years to secure a landmark en banc win in Cheeseman at the Third Circuit, and now that precedent is helping us eliminate another unconstitutional arms ban,” Combs continued. “We are building wins on wins, case by case and court by court, until these immoral laws are eliminated throughout the United States. Governments do not get to erase the Second Amendment by calling protected arms ‘ghost guns,’ ‘assault weapons,’ or whatever other pejorative labels they invent.”
The Rigby case is part of FPC’s broader national litigation campaign challenging restrictions on firearm self-manufacturing and possession. FPC is also litigating challenges to similar laws in other jurisdictions including Oregon, Nevada, and California.
“We and our FPC Grassroots Army will continue to Fight Forward against these bans everywhere they exist,” Combs concluded. “With our Viramontes case set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on December 2, we are another step closer to establishing nationwide precedent that will help us eliminate unconstitutional bans on protected arms throughout the United States.”
The opinion and other case documents in Rigby v. Jennings can be viewed at firearmspolicy.org/rigby.
Plaintiffs are represented by Bradley P. Lehman of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, and William V. Bergstrom of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC.
Individuals who want to join the FPC Grassroots Army and help support important lawsuits like this one can visit JoinFPC.org.
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About Firearms Policy Coalition
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) is a nonprofit membership organization that exists to create a world of maximal individual liberty and eliminate unconstitutional gun control laws. FPC works—and wins—for the People through high-impact strategic litigation, groundbreaking research, legislative and regulatory advocacy, grassroots activism, education, and public engagement. FPC’s legal division, FPC Law, is the nation’s leading initiative dedicated to restoring the right to keep and bear arms across the United States. To learn more about how FPC is working—and winning—for the People, sign up for FPC news alerts at firearmspolicy.org and follow FPC on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
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