Delaware bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons.
Delaware bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons. There is no federal ban — the 1994 law expired in 2004 and was never renewed — so this is a state-level prohibition on part of your catalog. Federal law already routes every firearm sale through a licensed dealer, so the question here is not how you ship but which of your products may be sold into Delaware at all. This page covers which firearms fall under the state's definition, how to identify them in your catalog, what happens to existing Delaware customers, and why payment processors flag this as a control gap.
Delaware bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons. There is no federal ban — the 1994 law expired in 2004 and was never renewed — so this is a state-level prohibition on part of your catalog.
Federal law already routes every firearm sale through a licensed dealer, so the question in Delaware is not how you ship but which of your products may be sold there at all.
Source: Gun Laws by State — assault weapons ban states (2026) · as of 2026-07. Rules in this area change, and this is not legal advice — verify the current position for every state you ship into before you rely on it.
What this means for your store
You cannot sell assault weapons as Delaware defines them into the state, regardless of whether you hold a federal firearms licence. This is not a grey area — the rule bans the category outright. Any order from a Delaware customer for a firearm on the prohibited list must be refused at checkout. You cannot offer to ship it elsewhere, cannot take payment and cancel later, and cannot treat it as a customer problem. The ban covers specific makes and models by name, so you will need to audit your inventory against Delaware's definitions and mark prohibited SKUs accordingly. If you sell firearms into multiple states, those states may have different bans. One prohibited product in Delaware may be legal in another state you serve. The risk: fulfilling a prohibited sale into Delaware exposes you to state liability and is evidence to a payment processor that your controls are absent.
The control that actually enforces it
The control is a product-level block in your Shopify store. Each firearm SKU must be tagged or noted with its legal status in Delaware — typically through a product metafield that reads 'Delaware: prohibited' or 'Delaware: allowed'. At checkout, your store must enforce a geo-block: if the customer's billing or shipping address is Delaware, the checkout must reject any prohibited product before payment. This is not a note in a spreadsheet and not a flag for manual review later. It is a hard rule in your cart logic. If the control lives only in someone's head, or if you rely on staff to remember which SKUs are banned, you will eventually ship a prohibited firearm into Delaware. That sale is then evidence to an acquirer that you have no compliance system.
Why an underwriter cares
A payment processor sees a firearms merchant shipping into a state with an assault weapons ban as a compliance red flag independent of the product category itself. What matters to an underwriter is whether you have demonstrated control: do you know which products are banned, can you prove you block them at checkout, and can you show you are not fulfilling prohibited orders. Processors are not enforcing Delaware law — they are managing their own exposure to a merchant who ships where state law says not to. Evidence of a per-product, per-state block inside your Shopify store is what an acquirer wants to see. Absence of that control suggests you are guessing, which is exactly the risk processors want to avoid.
Frequently asked
Can I sell any firearms into Delaware?
No. Delaware bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons. You cannot sell those specific models into the state at all. You must identify which of your SKUs fall under Delaware's ban and block them from checkout for Delaware customers. This is not negotiable — the rule is a outright prohibition, not a licensing or compliance issue.
What counts as an assault weapon under Delaware law?
Delaware's ban covers specific firearms by make and model. You will need to cross-reference your inventory against the state's list of prohibited weapons to determine which SKUs cannot be sold into Delaware. Your firearms supplier or a state-level legal resource will have the exact definitions. The rule is specific enough that you cannot guess — you must verify each product.
If I set up a separate store in Delaware, can I sell assault weapons there?
No. The ban applies to all sales into Delaware, regardless of which store or entity sells them. Setting up a second Shopify store or a new company does not circumvent the rule. Your payment processor will also review your entire sales history and ownership structure, so a new entity does not reset your compliance record.
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