Sponsors (43)
The bill tightens federal definitions, penalties, and transfer rules to reduce availability of semiautomatic 'assault weapons' and funds local buy‑backs while preserving limited grandfathered ownership — at the cost of new criminal exposures, compliance and administrative burdens, potential market impacts, and some diversion of public safety resources.
Law enforcement and the public: clearer federal definitions and expanded statutory coverage make it easier to identify, regulate, and prosecute semiautomatic 'assault weapons' and certain accessories, likely reducing availability and aiding enforcement.
Existing lawful owners: people who possessed covered weapons before enactment can generally keep them if they comply with registration, storage, and transfer rules, and transfers of grandfathered weapons can be lawfully processed through licensed dealers with background checks.
State and local governments and communities: Byrne grant authorization allows jurisdictions to use federal funds to compensate people who surrender covered weapons in buy‑back programs, supporting local efforts to reduce dangerous firearms in communities.
Owners and dealers: the bill makes possession, manufacture, sale, and transfer of many semiautomatic firearms and high‑capacity magazines federal crimes carrying higher penalties, increasing the risk of imprisonment and fines for noncompliance.
Private owners: new registration, mandatory storage and access rules, prohibition on unlicensed private transfers, and dealer‑custody transfer requirements will limit how owners use, loan, sell, or store grandfathered weapons and impose ongoing administrative burdens.
Manufacturers, dealers, and owners: compliance costs, product redesign, recordkeeping, marking, and potential loss of market for models reclassified as assault weapons will create economic burdens for small businesses and private owners.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Bans manufacture, import, sale, transfer, and possession of defined semiautomatic 'assault weapons' and large-capacity magazines, with narrow exemptions and grandfathering/registration for existing lawful owners.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Adam Schiff · Last progress April 30, 2025
Prohibits the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, and possession (in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce) of a broad class of defined semiautomatic “assault weapons” and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, while creating narrow exemptions and a limited grandfathering/registration path for people who lawfully owned covered weapons before the law takes effect. It adds many technical definitions to federal firearms law, requires the Attorney General to issue implementing regulations, expands criminal penalties references, limits private transfers of grandfathered weapons through licensed dealers, and authorizes federal Byrne grant money to be used for buy-back compensation.