Does Maryland Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Maryland Criminal Law section 4-301 defines an assault long gun through an enumerated list and defines a copycat weapon separately. For a semiautomatic centerfire rifle that accepts a detachable magazine, the copycat test requires any two of a folding stock, grenade or flare launcher, and flash suppressor.

A fixed magazine over 10 rounds and an overall length below 29 inches are independent rifle criteria. Section 4-303 ties the possession exception to lawful possession before October 1, 2013 or a qualifying pre-effective-date purchase order.

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.