The Grandfathering Provision
When the SAFE Act redefined assault weapons under Penal Law Section 265.00(22), it created a significant compliance challenge for gun owners who lawfully possessed firearms that now fell under the broadened definition. To address this, the statute included a grandfathering provision: individuals who possessed assault weapons before the SAFE Act's effective date of January 15, 2013, were permitted to keep those weapons, provided they registered them with the New York State Police.[1]
Registration Deadline and Process
The registration provision took effect ninety days after enactment and then gave covered owners one year, until April 15, 2014, to apply.[2] The registration process required owners to submit information about each qualifying weapon to the State Police, including make, model, caliber, and serial number. Registration was conducted at no cost to the applicant.
Upon successful registration, the weapon was documented in the State Police firearms registry and could be retained while the registration remained valid. Registrants must recertify with the State Police every five years, and failure to recertify results in revocation of the registration.[3]
Transfer Restrictions
Registered assault weapons are subject to strict transfer limitations. An owner may not sell, give, or otherwise transfer a registered assault weapon to any individual within New York State, with the sole exception of transferring the weapon to a licensed firearms dealer.[4]
Permitted transfer options include:
- Sale or transfer to a licensed firearms dealer within New York
- Sale or transfer to a person or entity outside New York State, provided all applicable reporting requirements are met
- Surrender to a law enforcement agency
The statute does not provide a general immediate-family transfer exception for a registered assault weapon. An executor, administrator, or other lawful possessor of a decedent's covered weapon may possess it for no more than fifteen days. If it is not lawfully disposed of during that period, it must be delivered to an official authorized by Penal Law Section 265.20.[5]
Failure to Register
Penal Law Section 265.02(7) makes possession of an assault weapon criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a Class D felony.[6] The SAFE Act created a narrower rule for a person who possessed a newly classified weapon before the 2013 law and could continue to possess it upon registration. A knowing failure to apply by the deadline is a Class A misdemeanor. An unknowing failure triggers a warning and a thirty-day opportunity to register or surrender the weapon before law enforcement removes it.[3]
Safe Storage and Recertification
Registered assault weapons remain subject to generally applicable storage laws. In a home, a firearm, rifle, or shotgun must be secured with a locking device or in a safe storage depository, or remain under the immediate possession and control of a lawful possessor, when a child under eighteen resides in or is present in the home or the owner or possessor resides with a prohibited person.[7] A firearm, rifle, or shotgun left outside the owner's immediate possession or control in a vehicle must be unloaded, locked in an appropriate safe storage depository, and concealed from view.[9]
Assault weapon registrants must recertify their registration with the New York State Police every five years.[3] A separate pistol or revolver license follows its own renewal or recertification rules. Outside New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, a carry-concealed license is recertified with the State Police every three years and a premises-restricted license every five years. Those four jurisdictions use their applicable local renewal or certification process.[8]
Compliance Rates
Reports following the registration deadline indicated that a relatively small number of weapons were registered compared to estimates of the total number of newly classified assault weapons in the state. The exact number of registered weapons has been the subject of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests and political debate, but the State Police have not published comprehensive public data on registration totals.[2]