Sponsors (19)
The bill prioritizes reducing the lethality and circulation of certain semi‑automatic firearms through bans, enhanced penalties, and funded buybacks—trading expanded regulatory enforcement and public‑safety tools for increased compliance costs, administrative burdens, limits on transfers, and higher incarceration and litigation risks.
Law enforcement, first responders, and communities: restricting gas‑operated semi‑automatic firearms and high‑capacity magazines plus funded buybacks aims to reduce mass‑shooting lethality and the number of rounds available in active‑shooter events.
Prosecutors and public safety officials: strengthened penalties for possession of prohibited semi‑automatic firearms provide a clearer enhanced sentencing tool that may deter unlawful possession and related violent crime.
Local governments and police departments: authorizes use of federal Byrne funds for buy‑back programs and provides statutory definitions so jurisdictions can remove covered weapons without reallocating local budgets or facing legal uncertainty about eligible items.
Owners of grandfathered firearms and pre‑enactment large‑capacity magazines: new prohibitions and limits on interstate transfers and transfer procedures restrict resale, impede family transfers, and limit mobility of lawfully acquired items.
Firearm manufacturers, importers, and retailers: new design approvals, marking requirements, fees, and potential production delays raise compliance costs that may reduce sales, burden small businesses, and increase consumer prices.
People charged and marginalized communities: mandatory minimums and enhanced penalties for possession of prohibited firearms can increase incarceration, limit judicial discretion, and risk disproportionate sentencing disparities.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Martin Heinrich · Last progress April 9, 2025
Prohibits the import, manufacture, sale, transfer, and most possession of "gas-operated" semi-automatic firearms and most large-capacity ammunition feeding devices in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, while carving out narrow government, Tribal, and certain Atomic Energy Act exceptions and limited grandfathering for items lawfully made or transferred before enactment. Requires new statutory definitions, marking and serial-number rules, criminal penalties (including an enhanced mandatory minimum when a related felony occurs), an ATF-run review and approval process with a public list of covered firearms, and allows Byrne grant money to be used for buyback compensation.