Sponsors (14)
The bill creates clearer rules and potential public-safety benefits by defining and certifying 'less-lethal' projectile devices, but it restricts access to some tools, imposes compliance costs on makers, and risks legal disputes over technical thresholds.
Law enforcement agencies and officers can more clearly acquire and use designated less-lethal projectile devices because the bill creates a statutory definition and an Attorney General certification process.
Manufacturers and purchasers gain regulatory certainty about whether a device qualifies as less-lethal via a formal 90-day Attorney General determination, reducing ambiguity about compliance and procurement.
Law enforcement, local governments, and the public may experience fewer lethal outcomes because qualifying devices are limited to those unlikely to cause death or serious injury compared with firearms in some uses.
Law enforcement agencies, local governments, and some civilians could lose access to devices they consider effective if those devices fail the bill's strict definition (for example, devices exceeding 500 ft/s or convertible to accept firearm ammunition).
Small manufacturers may face meaningful compliance costs and delays to submit devices for AG review and to redesign products to meet the statute's technical criteria.
Manufacturers and local governments could face legal uncertainty and increased litigation risk because technical thresholds (like the 500 ft/s velocity limit) may be contested as arbitrary.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a federal definition of “less-than-lethal projectile device” and requires the Attorney General to decide within 90 days whether a submitted device meets that definition.
Official title: Modernize Federal firearms laws to account for advancements in technology and less-than-lethal weapons, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 3, 2025 by William Francis Hagerty · Last progress April 3, 2025
Adds a new federal legal definition for “less-than-lethal projectile device” and requires the Attorney General to rule, within 90 days of receiving a device on request, whether a given device meets that definition. The definition limits speed (≤500 ft/s), design features (not built to fire common handgun/rifle/shotgun ammo or accept common feeding devices), and requires the device be intended for use unlikely to cause death or serious bodily injury.