There is no federal assault weapons ban in the United States today. The nationwide ban Congress passed in 1994 expired in 2004 and has never been renewed. Ten states enforce their own bans, each with its own definition of a prohibited firearm and its own penalties, so whether a specific rifle, pistol, or shotgun is legal depends entirely on where you live and, in some cases, where you travel.
No Federal Ban Right Now
The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act contained the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, which added two subsections to 18 U.S.C. § 922 prohibiting semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.1Congress.gov. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 – Enrolled Bill The law named 19 specific models and captured semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns with certain military-style features. A sunset clause built into the statute wiped both provisions off the books on September 13, 2004, because Congress never voted to renew them.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
Bills to reinstate a nationwide ban have been introduced repeatedly. The current effort, S. 1531, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025, was introduced in the Senate on April 30, 2025. It would prohibit the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons while exempting manually operated firearms, antiques, permanently disabled weapons, and rimfire-only firearms, with a grandfather clause for anything lawfully owned before enactment.3Congress.gov. S.1531 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 It has not been scheduled for a vote. So federal firearms law currently places no restriction on any semi-automatic firearm based on its features or model name. State law does the work.
Which States Ban Assault Weapons
Ten states prohibit assault weapons: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.4Everytown Research & Policy. Assault Weapons Prohibited Hawaii sits in its own category, banning assault pistols but not assault-style rifles.
The scope of each state’s ban varies. Some prohibit only the sale and manufacture of restricted firearms and let current owners keep what they already have. Others ban possession outright, giving owners a deadline to register, surrender, disable, or remove the firearm from the state. A rifle that is perfectly legal in one state can be a felony to possess a short drive across a state line, and many ban states do not recognize a “just passing through” defense for a firearm carried in a vehicle.
How a Firearm Gets Classified as an Assault Weapon
State bans generally use two tests, and most states apply both at once.
Feature Tests
The more common approach looks at physical characteristics. A semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine becomes prohibited if it has one or more listed features. The usual suspects include a pistol grip that protrudes below the action, a folding or telescoping stock, a flash suppressor, a grenade or flare launcher, a forward pistol grip, and a threaded barrel capable of accepting a suppressor or muzzle device. Many states use a one-feature test, meaning a single restricted characteristic on an otherwise legal semi-automatic firearm triggers the ban. Semi-automatic pistols and shotguns have their own feature lists that overlap with but do not match the rifle criteria.
Ammunition type matters more than people expect. Several state bans apply feature restrictions only to centerfire semi-automatic rifles, exempting rimfire models like the Ruger 10/22. A rimfire rifle may lawfully carry features that would make a centerfire rifle prohibited, though rimfire guns can still be banned if they appear on a named-model list or fall below a minimum length. S. 1531 uses the same carve-out at the federal level for firearms “only capable of firing rimfire ammunition.”3Congress.gov. S.1531 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2025
Named-Model Lists
The second approach is a list of specific makes and models banned by name. This closes the workaround of producing a functionally identical firearm that technically lacks a listed feature. When a state uses both methods, a firearm is prohibited if it appears on the list or fails the feature test. Manufacturers respond by selling “featureless” versions of popular rifles, stripped of pistol grips, adjustable stocks, and other restricted parts. Those modified rifles are legal in ban states as long as every component complies. Owners who build or modify their own firearms need to check each individual part, because adding a single restricted feature to a featureless rifle can turn legal possession into a felony.
What the Bans Actually Prohibit
Once a firearm qualifies as a prohibited assault weapon under state law, most of what people normally do with a gun becomes illegal. Manufacturing and commercial sale are the obvious targets. Most bans also cover importing a restricted firearm from another state or country, and private transfers between individuals, including gifts and estate transfers, are typically banned even when the firearm was legal at the time of original purchase.
Moving into a ban state creates a hard decision. The choices are usually to sell or transfer the restricted firearm before the move, modify it to pass the destination state’s feature test, or face criminal exposure for possessing it after establishing residency. Transporting a prohibited firearm through a ban state carries risk too. Rules requiring an unloaded firearm locked in a container separate from ammunition may not provide a full defense when the weapon itself is categorically banned.
Grandfather Clauses and Registration Deadlines
Most states that enact a new ban let current owners keep their firearms under a grandfather clause, but with conditions. The most common condition is mandatory registration. The owner has to notify a state agency, provide the serial number and identifying information, and do it within a window that typically runs from a few months to about a year after the law takes effect.
Missing that window is where people get into trouble. Once it closes, an unregistered assault weapon becomes illegal to possess no matter when it was purchased. The remaining options are usually to surrender it to law enforcement, sell it through a licensed dealer, have it permanently disabled, or transport it out of state. Charges for possessing an unregistered weapon after the deadline range from misdemeanor to felony.
A grandfather clause protects the original owner, not the weapon’s future circulation. Even registered firearms usually cannot be sold, gifted, or transferred to another person inside the state. Inheritance adds another wrinkle. When the owner of a grandfathered firearm dies, the heir generally has a limited window to register the firearm in their own name, sell it through a licensed dealer, disable it, or move it out of state. An executor handling an estate that contains restricted firearms needs to act quickly to keep the estate and the heir out of legal trouble.
Magazine Capacity Rules
Assault weapons bans are frequently paired with limits on magazine capacity, and several states restrict magazines even without banning the firearms. The typical threshold is more than ten rounds, though a handful of states set higher limits, sometimes 15 rounds for handguns or rifles. The magazine is regulated as a standalone item, so you can be charged for possessing a prohibited magazine even when the firearm it fits is otherwise legal.
Possession is usually a misdemeanor on its own and can escalate to a felony when combined with other charges. Some states with capacity limits required owners to permanently modify existing magazines by the compliance deadline. Others banned future sales and imports while grandfathering magazines already owned. Disassembled magazine parts and rebuild kits fall into a gray area. Some jurisdictions treat assembling a high-capacity magazine from parts as manufacturing a prohibited item, and others have no clear statutory language covering unassembled components.
Penalties
Criminal penalties vary widely by state and by the nature of the offense. Illegal possession is typically a felony, though a few states treat a first offense as a misdemeanor when the owner can show the weapon was lawfully acquired before the ban took effect. Selling or distributing a prohibited firearm generally carries steeper penalties than simple possession. Across the ten ban states, felony prison sentences range from one year to well over a decade, and fines can reach $10,000 or more per offense. Law enforcement can seize the firearm on discovering a violation, and the weapon is rarely returned regardless of how the case ends.
Where the Courts Stand
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home.5Justia. District of Columbia v. Heller The Court also said the right is not unlimited, noting that the Amendment does not protect weapons “not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes” and pointing to a historical tradition of prohibiting “dangerous and unusual weapons.”6Legal Information Institute. District of Columbia v. Heller That language became the fault line: are semi-automatic rifles with military-style features “in common use” and therefore protected, or “dangerous and unusual” and therefore not?
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the Court replaced the older balancing tests with a historical-tradition standard. When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers the conduct, the government must show its regulation is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition” of firearms regulation.7U.S. Supreme Court. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen Courts look for historical analogues by asking whether the modern regulation imposes a comparable burden on armed self-defense and whether that burden is comparably justified.8Congress.gov. Rahimi and Applying the Second Amendment Bruen Standard
Federal appellate courts have split on how Bruen applies to assault weapons bans. In early 2025, the full Fourth Circuit upheld Maryland’s ban in Snope v. Brown, finding that the covered firearms are “military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations” and outside Second Amendment protection, and that the ban fits within a historical tradition of regulating excessively dangerous weapons. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in June 2025, leaving that ruling intact.9U.S. Supreme Court. Snope v. Brown – Certiorari Denied Until the Supreme Court takes a direct challenge, the constitutional question is not settled at the national level, and outcomes will vary by circuit.
Two Traps People Miss
NFA Items Are Not Exempt
Firearms registered under the National Firearms Act, the 1934 law regulating short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, machine guns, suppressors, and similar items through a federal tax and registration system, are not exempt from state assault weapons bans.10ATF. National Firearms Act A short-barreled rifle fully legal under the NFA and properly registered with the ATF can still be a prohibited assault weapon under state law, and the federal tax stamp provides no defense against state prosecution. Anyone holding NFA registrations in or near a ban state needs to verify state compliance separately from federal status.
Home-Built Firearms Follow the Same Rules
Privately made firearms, often called ghost guns, are assembled at home from parts kits, unfinished receiver blanks, or 3D-printed components. In 2022, the ATF issued a final rule expanding the definition of “frame or receiver” to include partially complete versions that can be “readily” made functional, and clarified that parts kits can themselves qualify as firearms under federal law when they contain enough components for ready assembly.11Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Summary of Final Rule 2021R-05F For the state-law question, the point is simple: building a firearm at home does not exempt it from a state ban. If the finished product would fail the state’s feature test or appear on its named-model list, it is just as illegal as a store-bought version. Several ban states have added their own serialization and registration requirements for privately made firearms, often with tight deadlines.