2026 Session Roundup: Penalty Enhancements, Bail Reform, and Youth Firearms Proposals

What These Bills Would Do

The 2025-2026 session includes a substantial block of bills aimed at toughening penalties for firearms offenses, expanding bail eligibility for weapons crimes, and restricting the ability of adolescent offenders who possess firearms to be removed to Family Court. These bills reflect a bipartisan push to respond to gun violence through the criminal justice system.

Penalty enhancements:

• A03659 / S00990 — Reclassifies criminal possession of a firearm from a class E felony to class D felony, significantly increasing potential prison time under Penal Law 265.01-b^[1]
• A00818 / S06398 — Creates a new class A-I felony for "operating as a major firearms trafficker," the most serious category of felony in New York
• A03657 / S01037 — Addresses unlawful discharge of a loaded firearm toward police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel
• A04463 / S01304 — Creates the crime of "firing into a crowded space" as a class B violent felony

Bail and pretrial detention:

• A00632 — Makes firearms possession, display, or discharge offenses qualifying for bail^[2]
• A01013 — Adds machine-gun, ghost gun, and assault weapon possession to bail-eligible offenses
• A07460 / S07419 — Permits courts to remand defendants to custody for felony firearms and weapons possession

Youth and adolescent offenders:

• A01075 / S02361 — Exempts adolescent offenders with loaded firearms from removal to Family Court
• A00346 — Establishes the offense of unlawful possession of firearms by persons under 21^[3]
• A03401 — Expands criminal solicitation for providing a loaded firearm to a person under 18

Current Status

All of these bills remain referred to committees — primarily the Codes Committee in both chambers — with no hearing dates or advancement to third reading. The sheer number of proposals (over a dozen) reflects the intensity of the debate, but the lack of movement suggests legislative leadership has not prioritized any individual bill for floor action.

What to Watch

Many of these proposals would partially roll back aspects of New York's 2019 bail reform, which eliminated cash bail for most non-violent offenses and restricted judicial discretion to impose pretrial detention. The firearms exception has been a flashpoint: advocates argue that judges need discretion to hold defendants charged with illegal gun possession, while reform advocates warn that expanded bail eligibility disproportionately affects communities of color. Watch for omnibus criminal justice packages that bundle several of these provisions, as the Legislature has historically used package deals to move politically difficult firearms and criminal justice measures.