Anti-2A laws are the federal and state rules that restrict who can own firearms, what kinds are legal, how they change hands, where they can be carried, and how they must be stored. Some come from statutes passed decades ago, others from recent ATF rulemaking, and the legal ground under all of them shifted with two Supreme Court decisions: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in 2022 and United States v. Rahimi in 2024. What follows is what a gun owner or prospective buyer actually needs to know about the current landscape.
Who Is Barred From Owning a Firearm
Federal law prohibits nine categories of people from possessing firearms or ammunition under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), and these prohibitions apply regardless of what state law says.1Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Identify Prohibited Persons They cover anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison; fugitives from justice; users of controlled substances; people committed to a mental institution or found mentally incompetent by a court; undocumented immigrants; anyone dishonorably discharged from the military; anyone who has renounced U.S. citizenship; people subject to qualifying domestic violence restraining orders; and anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
Two of these catch otherwise law-abiding people off guard. The Lautenberg Amendment, added in 1996, made a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction a lifetime federal firearms ban, putting it on the same footing as a felony for gun purposes.2U.S. Marshals Service. Lautenberg Amendment And federal law still classifies marijuana as a controlled substance even where states have legalized it, which means regular users are federally prohibited. ATF Form 4473, filled out at every licensed dealer, asks directly about controlled substance use and warns that state legalization is irrelevant. Answering dishonestly is itself a federal crime.
Federal law does include a rights-restoration procedure under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c), but Congress has blocked ATF funding to process those applications for decades, so the federal path is effectively closed.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief From Disabilities State-level restoration exists in some places and depends on the underlying conviction.
Restricted Firearms and Features
The National Firearms Act of 1934 regulates specific categories of weapons rather than banning them outright. Machine guns, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and silencers all fall under the NFA, which requires registration and a $200 tax on manufacture or transfer.4Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. National Firearms Act Possessing an unregistered NFA item is a federal felony carrying up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 5871 – Penalties
There is no current federal ban on so-called assault weapons. The 1994 federal ban expired in 2004 and has not been renewed. Several states have their own bans targeting semi-automatic firearms with features like pistol grips, folding stocks, or threaded barrels, and many also cap magazine capacity, most commonly at ten rounds. Violations of state bans can carry felony charges and permanent loss of firearm rights.
Background Checks, Private Sales, and Waiting Periods
Every purchase from a licensed dealer runs through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, operated by the FBI and established by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. The dealer submits the buyer’s Form 4473 information and receives one of three responses: proceed, denied, or delayed. If the FBI cannot resolve a delayed case within three business days, the dealer may legally complete the transfer, though nothing requires them to.6FBI. About NICS
Federal law does not require background checks for private sales between individuals who are not licensed dealers. About 17 states and the District of Columbia have closed that gap by requiring checks on all transfers. Universal background check proposals at the federal level have been introduced repeatedly and have not passed.
Waiting periods are separate from the check itself. About ten states and D.C. require a mandatory wait between purchase and delivery for all firearms, ranging from one day to thirty days, with a few more states imposing waits on certain categories.7RAND Corporation. The Effects of Waiting Periods
The Ghost Gun Rule Is Now in Effect
In 2022, ATF finalized Rule 2021R-05F, which expanded the definition of a firearm “frame or receiver” to include partially complete parts that can be readily finished into a working firearm.8Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Summary of Final Rule 2021R-05F The practical effect is that sellers of weapons parts kits have to serialize them and run background checks just as if they were selling a completed gun.
A federal district court in Texas struck the rule down, but the Supreme Court reversed in March 2025 in Bondi v. VanDerStok, with a seven-justice majority holding that ATF’s definitions were consistent with the Gun Control Act on their face.9Congress.gov. Supreme Court Upholds ATF Ghost Gun Regulation in Bondi v VanDerStok The rule is in force. If you are buying or selling a kit, treat it as a firearm.
Red Flag Laws and Extreme Risk Protection Orders
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have enacted red flag laws that let courts temporarily remove firearms from people found to pose a significant danger. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 put $750 million in federal funding behind state crisis intervention programs, including red flag systems.10The White House. A Report on the Implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
A family member or law enforcement officer typically files a civil petition. A judge reviews it, and if the evidence warrants, issues a temporary order for the person to surrender their firearms. That initial hearing usually happens without the gun owner present, which is the most contested feature of the process. A full hearing where you can appear and respond typically follows within about 14 days, with the standard usually set at clear and convincing evidence that you remain a danger. If the court finds the evidence insufficient, guns are returned. If the order is sustained, it commonly runs six months to a year and can be renewed. Refusing to comply with a valid order can result in arrest.
Carrying in Public After Bruen
As of mid-2025, 29 states allow some form of permitless carry for residents. The rest use either shall-issue systems, where authorities must grant a permit if objective criteria are met, or may-issue systems, where officials have discretion.
The Supreme Court struck down New York’s may-issue law in 2022 in Bruen, holding that law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs have a right to carry firearms in public and that a state cannot require applicants to demonstrate a special need.11Supreme Court of the United States. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc v Bruen
Where You Still Cannot Carry
Even in permitless-carry states, firearms are banned in certain places. The Gun-Free School Zones Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of school grounds, with penalties up to five years that cannot run concurrently with any other sentence.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties Exceptions cover people with state-issued carry permits, firearms that are unloaded and locked in a container, and activities on private property that is not part of school grounds.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts Government buildings, courthouses, polling places, and airports are also commonly restricted. Private property owners can prohibit firearms on their premises, and entering with a firearm after being told not to can support trespassing charges.
Crossing State Lines
Carry permits do not automatically transfer across state borders. Each state decides which other states’ permits it recognizes, and some recognize none. Carrying into a state that does not honor your permit exposes you to that state’s full penalties for unlawful carry, which can include felony charges. This is one of the easier ways for a careful gun owner to end up in serious trouble.
Safe Storage and Child Access Prevention
About 35 states and D.C. have child access prevention laws that impose criminal liability when a minor gets to an unsecured firearm. Penalties scale with outcome: mere access is typically a misdemeanor, while an injury or death can push charges into felony territory with significant prison exposure. Ages, storage requirements, and penalty structures vary by state.
No federal law currently mandates in-home storage. Some states go beyond child access rules and require all firearms to be stored with a locking device or in a locked container regardless of whether children are present. In some jurisdictions, failing to secure a firearm that is later used in a crime can also create civil liability for the owner.
How Courts Now Judge Gun Laws
Before 2022, most federal courts used a two-step test that balanced the burden on Second Amendment rights against the government’s public safety interest. Bruen discarded that approach. When the Second Amendment’s text covers what a person wants to do, the government now has to show that its regulation fits within the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.11Supreme Court of the United States. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc v Bruen In practice, judges look for historical analogues from earlier periods of American history to justify modern laws.14Cornell Law Institute. The Bruen Decision and Concealed-Carry Licenses
Lower courts split badly over how strict that historical match had to be. The Supreme Court corrected course in June 2024 in United States v. Rahimi, an 8-1 decision upholding the federal ban on firearm possession by people under domestic violence restraining orders.15Oyez. United States v Rahimi Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, said modern laws do not need a “historical twin” to survive; courts should ask whether a regulation is consistent with the principles underlying the historical tradition. The Court pointed to colonial-era surety laws and “going armed” statutes as analogues supporting the temporary disarming of people a court has found to pose a credible threat.16Supreme Court of the United States. United States v Rahimi
Rahimi said the Second Amendment is not “a law trapped in amber.” The government still has to ground its rules in historical tradition, but with more flexibility than the strictest readings of Bruen allowed. Challenges to assault weapons bans, magazine capacity limits, age restrictions, and other regulations are still working through the courts, and the outcomes will turn on how broadly or narrowly judges apply the principles from these two decisions.