Sponsors (43)
The bill tightens definitions, transfer rules, and penalties to reduce gun violence and improve enforcement and transparency, but does so by restricting owners' transfer and possession rights, imposing costs on owners and businesses, and increasing implementation and taxpayer burdens.
Middle-class families, taxpayers, and communities: reduces mass‑shooting risks and access by prohibited persons by removing certain semiautomatic assault weapons and high‑capacity magazines from wide circulation, requiring background checks for grandfathered weapons, and enabling voluntary buy‑backs.
Law enforcement and prosecutors: clearer statutory definitions of semiautomatic assault weapons and feeding devices plus expanded §924 penalties improve the ability to identify, investigate, prosecute, and deter illegal possession or transfer of regulated weapons.
Licensed dealers, importers, and small businesses that handle transfers: creates a clearer, licensed pathway for transfers of grandfathered weapons (including a capped fee structure and temporary on‑range loans), reducing some legal uncertainty for businesses that facilitate lawful transfers.
Private firearm owners (including middle‑class families and veterans): expanded definitions and bans could make commonly owned semiautomatic firearms and many accessories newly illegal or restricted, lowering market value and exposing owners to compliance costs or criminal penalties.
Manufacturers, retailers, and sellers: may face lost sales, inventory modification or destruction costs, and reduced liquidity because of newly regulated items and limits on transfers.
Taxpayers, federal/state/local governments, and law enforcement: implementing, regulating, and enforcing new definitions, transfer rules, reporting, buy‑backs, and expanded penalties will increase administrative, enforcement, and court costs and strain agency resources.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Bans specified semiautomatic "assault weapons" and large-capacity feeding devices, sets definitions, exceptions, storage and transfer rules, DOJ reporting, and allows Byrne-funded buy-back payments.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Adam Schiff · Last progress April 30, 2025
Bans a broad set of semiautomatic firearms and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices by defining "semiautomatic assault weapons" and making their manufacture, import, sale, and transfer in interstate or foreign commerce unlawful, while listing explicit exceptions (law enforcement, certain antiques, permanently inoperable firearms, etc.). It also requires secure storage or safety devices for weapons that are "grandfathered" in, creates new transfer rules for grandfathered weapons (licensed dealers must process transfers after enactment deadlines), requires DOJ reporting on assault weapons used in crimes, and allows Byrne JAG grant funds to be used to pay owners in buy-back programs. The bill adds many new statutory definitions, updates criminal penalty cross-references to cover the new prohibitions, authorizes the Attorney General to issue implementing regulations and cap licensee fees for transfer services, and contains a severability clause to preserve the law if parts are struck down in court.