Does New Jersey Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

New Jersey Statutes section 2C:39-1(w) contains a named-model list and includes firearms that are substantially identical to a listed model. That branch requires a model and configuration analysis rather than a named-list lookup alone.

On July 17, 2026, the en banc Third Circuit held New Jersey's restriction unconstitutional as applied to the challenged semiautomatic-rifle class and remanded the consolidated cases. The court separately remanded issues involving other firearm categories, and the Governor's same-day statement criticized the ruling and said the State would not back down.

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.