Does Connecticut Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Connecticut General Statutes section 53-202a contains named-model, copy-or-duplicate, and feature-based definitions. Public Act 23-53 added the 2023 assault-weapon category, including additional semiautomatic rifle, pistol, shotgun, and other-firearm configurations.

The certificate provisions use different acquisition dates and filing windows for earlier categories and 2023 assault weapons. A firearm lawfully possessed before June 6, 2023 generally depended on a certificate application by May 1, 2024 for the newer category, subject to the statute's specific exceptions.

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 nationwide 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. Cargill v. Garland (2024) made bump stocks federally legal. Feature bans are entirely a matter of state law.

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.