Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association (DSSA) was formed in 1968 to serve as Delaware’s “State Association” within the NRA’s system of state affiliates. As Delaware’s NRA official state affiliate, DSSA is charged with responsibility for:
- overseeing the delivery of NRA programs and services within the State of Delaware
- serving as the umbrella organization through which the NRA’s constituent clubs and associations operate within Delaware
- serving as the official NRA representative organization for legislative and political matters as they relate to hunting, conservation, competitive shooting, gun collecting
- exercising the right to keep and bears arms in Delaware as protected by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and under the Delaware Constitution
Since its inception, DSSA has served as the primary organization in liaison with the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). DSSA has continuously maintained a presence within the Delaware General Assembly, working closely with NRA-ILA to ensure that the rights of Delaware’s hunters and gun owners are protected and defended in every way possible. Over the years DSSA has been responsible for the following successes in that regard:
- Passage of a constitutional amendment that resulted in the addition of Article I Sec. 20 to the Delaware Constitution guaranteeing that “A person has the right to keep and bear arms for defense of self, family, home and State, and for hunting and recreation”
- Passage of Delaware’s preemption laws that prohibit towns, cities, and counties from passing anti-gun measures and ensuring that only the Delaware General Assembly is imbued with that power
- Passage of Concealed Carry Reciprocity so as to benefit Delaware Concealed carry permit holders traveling outside of Delaware
- Passage of multiple measures over the years to strengthen Delaware’s concealed carry laws so as to ensure they are applied in a more fair, equitable and non-discriminatory manner, including the addition of the right to appeal an adverse decision to the Delaware Supreme Court
- Passage of legislation ensuring implementation of federal LEOSA (HB 218)concealed carry rights for current and retired law enforcement officers
- Passage of Range Protection legislation protecting ranges from those who would shut them down
- Defeating two prior attempts at banning modern sporting and defensive arms (so-called semi-automatic “assault weapons”)
- Defeating multiple attempts to ration guns through “one-gun-per-month” proposals pushed by three separate Governors
- Defeating multiple attempts to require licensing and registration of owners and/or firearms proposed by multiple Governors
- Defeating multiple attempts to repeal preemption laws and/or to carve out exceptions to those law
- Passage of Handgun hunting in Delaware
- Passage of select (straight walled calibers) Rifle hunting in Delaware
- Participated as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in both the Heller and McDonald cases before the United states Supreme Court
- Contributing to discussion, debate, and legislation that led to legalization of Sunday hunting in Delaware
- Safeguarding hunters’ rights by advocating for value-added services in exchange for any hunting or trapping license fee increases
- Contributing to discussion, debate, and legislation that led to coyote hunting seasons in Delaware
- Defeating unlawful and unconstitutional firearms bans in Delaware State Parks and Forests by filing suit and winning Delaware Supreme Court appeals in the case of DSSA, Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club, et al versus DNREC and the Dept. of Agriculture
- Reversing the unconstitutional firearms ban by filing friend of the court briefs with the Delaware Supreme Court in the landmark Doe v. the Wilmington Housing Authority case in which WHA denied its residents their fundamental Second Amendment rights
- Defeating misguided, radical, and poorly researched ivory bans that would have outlawed the sale, purchase and possession with intent to sell otherwise legally taken ivory.
- Defeating ill-advised gun buyback programs that aimed to allow the State to permit law enforcement officers to use your tax dollars to buy guns that have absolutely NO relationship to any crime, have NO evidentiary value in court and that pose NO danger to anyone with state-wide tax money that could and should be used for real crime fighting.
- Defeating various proposals for impossible-to-enforce and impossible-to-navigate gun-free zones that if enacted would create criminals out of law-abiding citizens and would give criminals free reign against unprotected citizens.