Modern Firearm Safety Act

The Modern Firearm Safety Act would block federal, state, and local governments from requiring handguns to include extra design features that federal law does not already require. The bill says these local rules can limit choices for buyers, raise prices, and change how a gun is designed to work. It would set a single national standard instead of a patchwork of different local rules.

Key points

• Who is affected: people who buy handguns, gun makers and sellers, and government agencies that set handgun design rules.
• What changes: governments could not require features like a loaded-chamber indicator, a magazine disconnect safety, or “microstamping” that marks ammunition. They also could not require devices that do those jobs (or could be converted to do them), or require that a handgun be able to accept such a device.
• Where it applies: to handguns that are sold or shipped across state lines.
• When: if enacted, it would take effect as part of federal law; the text does not list a separate start date.