There is no federal assault weapons ban in effect right now. The nationwide ban Congress passed in 1994 expired in September 2004, and every bill introduced since then to reinstate it has died in committee. Roughly ten states enforce their own restrictions, so whether a particular semi-automatic rifle, pistol, or shotgun is legal depends almost entirely on where you live or where you’re traveling. The Supreme Court has signaled it will likely take up the constitutional question within the next term or two, which could change the map again.
How the Laws Decide What Counts as an Assault Weapon
Every assault weapons law has to answer the same threshold question: which firearms are covered? Bills and statutes generally use two approaches, and most use both together.
The first is a name ban. Specific makes and models are listed and prohibited outright. The AR-15 platform, AK-47 variants, and their copies appear on virtually every such list. If the firearm matches a name on the list, the analysis ends there.
The second is a feature test. A semi-automatic firearm that accepts a detachable magazine and also carries one or more military-style features qualifies as an assault weapon. Those features typically include a pistol grip, a folding or telescoping stock, a flash suppressor, a threaded barrel, or a barrel shroud. The same logic applies to semi-automatic pistols and shotguns, though the specific prohibited features differ for each category.
The 1994 federal ban required two prohibited features before a rifle qualified. Newer state laws and current federal proposals generally require only one, which closes the loophole manufacturers used to design lightly modified compliant versions of otherwise restricted firearms.
Manually operated firearms are almost always excluded. Bolt-action rifles, lever-action rifles, pump-action shotguns, and revolvers are not semi-automatic and fall outside the definition entirely. Rimfire rifles chambered in .22 LR receive partial protection in some jurisdictions, though a rimfire that appears on a name ban list remains restricted regardless of caliber.
Why There Is No Federal Ban Right Now
The only nationwide assault weapons ban in American history was the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, enacted in September 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.1Congress.gov. H.R. 4296 – Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act It banned the manufacture, transfer, and possession of 19 named firearms and copies, plus semi-automatic firearms meeting a two-feature test, and it capped magazines at ten rounds.2National Institute of Justice. Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994 – Final Report
The statute contained a built-in sunset. Section 6 stated that the entire act would be repealed ten years after enactment.3Congress.gov. H.R. 4296 – Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act – Bill Text Congress made no serious effort to renew it, and the law lapsed in September 2004. Manufacture and sale of previously restricted firearms became lawful again under federal law from that point forward.
What Congress Is Currently Proposing
Assault weapons ban bills have been introduced in nearly every Congress since 2004, and none has reached a floor vote in both chambers. The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 was introduced in both the House and Senate during the 118th Congress and never left committee.4Congress.gov. H.R. 698 – Assault Weapons Ban of 20235Congress.gov. S.25 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2023
The most recent version is the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 (S.1531), introduced in the 119th Congress in April 2025 with 42 cosponsors and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.6Congress.gov. S.1531 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 It uses a one-feature test, expands the name ban list, grandfathers existing firearms, and exempts law enforcement. No companion bill has gained traction in the House, and the Senate version faces the same political math that has stopped every previous attempt. Treat a new federal ban as a recurring proposal rather than a realistic near-term prospect.
State Bans Are Where the Real Rules Live
Because federal law is silent, roughly ten states carry the entire regulatory weight. The remaining states impose no assault weapons restrictions at all. The same firearm can be a lawful purchase in one state and a felony to possess in the one next door.
State laws differ in almost every meaningful detail. Some rely heavily on name bans that list dozens or hundreds of specific models. Others put more weight on the feature test, and the list of prohibited features is not uniform across states. A few restrict only future sales and transfers while allowing continued possession without any paperwork. Others require existing owners to register, modify, or surrender the firearm.
Penalties for possessing a banned firearm are typically felonies in states with bans, carrying potential prison time and permanent loss of firearm rights. Someone who legally owns a restricted rifle in one state and moves to a state with a ban can face serious criminal charges for simple possession after the move. This is the single most common way ordinary gun owners end up in trouble under these laws.
What Happens to Firearms You Already Own
When a new state ban takes effect, firearms purchased before the effective date are typically grandfathered. You can keep them, but “keep” almost never means “do nothing.” Most states impose conditions, and missing one converts a legal firearm into an illegal one.
Registration
The most common requirement is registration with a state or local law enforcement agency. You provide identifying details about yourself and the firearm: make, model, serial number, caliber, and sometimes acquisition date. Deadlines are strict, and missing one can turn a civil compliance issue into a criminal charge. Some states escalate penalties for repeated non-compliance, moving from misdemeanor to felony.
Where registration fees exist, they tend to be modest, generally under $20 per person. The real hazard is awareness. Many owners never learn a new registration requirement applies to them until the window has closed.
Selling, Transferring, or Passing It On
Grandfathered status is usually personal to the original owner. It does not automatically pass to whoever ends up holding the firearm next. Most states require any sale or transfer of a grandfathered assault weapon to go through a licensed dealer, and some prohibit private transfers within the state entirely.
Inheritance is its own problem. Some states let an heir receive a grandfathered firearm from a deceased relative, provided the heir registers it promptly and meets eligibility rules. Others do not recognize inheritance as a valid transfer, which can force an executor to surrender the firearm to law enforcement or move it to a buyer in a state where it remains legal. An estate plan that ignores this can leave a family with no lawful option.
Modifying to Comply, or Turning It In
Some jurisdictions let you keep the firearm if you remove the features that triggered the ban. That might mean permanently attaching the magazine so it no longer qualifies as detachable, removing a pistol grip, or pinning a collapsible stock in the fixed position. Professional gunsmithing for magazine modifications generally runs $10 to $40 per magazine, with more extensive work costing more.
A few states run voluntary or mandatory buyback programs that pay for surrendered firearms. The amounts offered rarely approach market value, which is why owners who can comply through registration or modification usually choose those routes instead.
Magazine Limits Are a Separate Rule
Nearly every assault weapons ban includes a separate cap on magazine capacity. Ten rounds is the most common ceiling; a handful of states set it at 15 for some or all firearm types. These limits apply independently of the firearm ban. Even a rifle that is perfectly legal in your state becomes a violation when paired with an oversized magazine.
Grandfathering for magazines is usually stricter than for firearms. A state may allow you to keep a registered pre-ban rifle while requiring you to surrender, destroy, or permanently modify any magazines exceeding the limit, with no registration option available for the magazines themselves.
Penalties for magazine violations are typically less severe than for possessing a banned firearm, often a misdemeanor or civil infraction rather than a felony. They still produce a criminal record and can lead to confiscation of both the magazine and the firearm it was attached to.
Law Enforcement and Retired Officer Exemptions
Every major assault weapons bill, including S.1531, exempts law enforcement and military personnel. Under the 2025 federal proposal, exempt groups include federal, state, and local government agencies; active law enforcement officers at any level of government, on or off duty; campus law enforcement officers; and officers who retired in good standing.6Congress.gov. S.1531 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 The retired-officer exemption covers weapons issued by the agency upon retirement or purchased for official use before retirement, and does not extend to firearms bought privately after leaving service.
State-level bans follow the same general pattern, but the retired-officer language varies. Some states allow retired officers to buy new restricted firearms; others limit the exemption strictly to weapons the officer already possessed while employed. If you’re relying on a retired-officer exemption, the specific state statute controls, and the details matter more than the general principle.
Traveling With a Restricted Firearm
If you legally own a firearm at home and need to move through a state where that firearm is banned, federal law gives you a narrow safe-passage rule. The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act lets you transport a firearm through any state, regardless of that state’s laws, as long as you can legally possess it at both origin and destination.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 926A – Interstate Transportation of Firearms
The conditions are strict. The firearm must be unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition may be readily accessible from the passenger compartment. In a vehicle with a trunk, that means locked in the trunk. In an SUV, pickup, or hatchback, it must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or center console.
The critical limit: this protection only covers travel through a restrictive state, not travel to one. If your destination is a state where the firearm is banned, federal law does not shield you from possession charges once you arrive. Courts have also read the passing-through protection narrowly, and travelers who made extended stops or deviated from a direct route have been arrested. A locked trunk is not a blanket immunity.
Flying With a Firearm
The TSA requires any firearm to be unloaded, locked in a hard-sided container, and transported only as checked baggage. You must declare the firearm and any ammunition to the airline at the ticket counter.8Transportation Security Administration. Transporting Firearms and Ammunition These federal rules apply everywhere, but they do not override state law at your destination. Flying into a state with an assault weapons ban while checking a banned firearm exposes you to prosecution on arrival, even if you followed every TSA rule perfectly.
The Second Amendment Question the Supreme Court Is Circling
Whether assault weapons bans can survive constitutional scrutiny is the biggest unresolved question in firearms law, and the Supreme Court appears close to answering it.
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the Court set the current test. Courts first ask whether the Second Amendment’s text covers the regulated conduct. If it does, the government must show that the restriction is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”9Supreme Court of the United States. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, No. 20-843 Under that framework, lower courts have split on whether semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 are “in common use” for lawful purposes, which is the phrase from Heller that determines whether a weapon receives constitutional protection.
In June 2025, the Court denied review in Snope v. Brown, a challenge to Maryland’s assault weapons ban, but Justice Kavanaugh wrote a statement explaining the denial. He noted that Americans own an estimated 20 to 30 million AR-15s and that the rifle is legal in 41 of 50 states, giving challengers “a strong argument” that it is constitutionally protected under Heller. He called the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding Maryland’s ban “questionable” and predicted the Court “should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.”10Supreme Court of the United States. Snope v. Brown, No. 24-203
As of early 2026, at least three related petitions are pending. Viramontes v. Cook County challenges a local assault weapons ban and has been distributed for conference repeatedly since January 2026 without a grant or denial.11Supreme Court of the United States. Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238 National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont challenges a state-level ban and is also pending. Duncan v. Bonta challenges a ten-round magazine limit and has been distributed for multiple early-2026 conferences.12Supreme Court of the United States. Duncan v. Bonta, No. 25-198 A ruling on any of them could reshape both the state-ban landscape and the constitutional status of magazine limits, since the analysis overlaps heavily.
If you own or are considering buying a firearm that could fall under a state ban, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Federal law will not help you at home. Your state’s specific statute, your registration status, and any transfer or inheritance restrictions that attach to a grandfathered firearm are what determine your legal exposure right now, and that exposure could shift again once the Supreme Court decides to take one of these cases.