Does New York Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

New York Penal Law section 265.00(22) uses separate one-feature tests for semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns. A detachable-magazine semiautomatic rifle enters the definition through one of a folding or telescoping stock, a protruding pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a second handgrip, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor, muzzle brake, muzzle compensator, or threaded barrel designed to accept one, or a grenade launcher.

Section 400.00(16-a) required owners of qualifying firearms possessed before the 2013 SAFE Act to register them within one year. Registration history does not create a path for a newly configured firearm, and model, action, magazine system, and feature count all require separate review.

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.