Does Arkansas Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Arkansas Code section 14-16-504 bars cities, towns, and counties from regulating the ownership, transfer, transportation, carrying, or possession of firearms, ammunition, or firearm components, except as state or federal law provides. It preserves ordinances against the unsafe discharge of a firearm and separately bars emergency ordinances regulating the transfer, transportation, or carrying of firearms after a governor's emergency proclamation.

There has been no federal assault weapons ban since the 1994 ban expired in 2004; no feature restrictions apply federally to semi-automatic rifles or pistols. The 2023 ATF pistol-brace rule was vacated by the courts and is not enforced, but federal SBR classification for a brace-equipped firearm still turns on whether the specific weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder. Garland v. Cargill (2024) held that a bump stock is not a machine gun under federal law. Feature bans are entirely a matter of state law.

Federal baseline verified 2026-10-20. Scope: State laws restricting semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns by configuration features: threaded barrels, pistol grips, folding or telescoping stocks, flash suppressors, forward grips, and similar. Magazine capacity limits are tracked as a separate class.