Legislative updates, court decisions, and regulatory changes affecting New York firearms law.
Senate Bill S.4277, the "50 Caliber Threat Reduction Act," would prohibit the possession of .50 caliber and larger firearms in New York and establish a buyback program for current owners.
S362 would create a ten-day waiting period. It was committed to Senate Rules and did not pass both houses in the reviewed session.
Governor Hochul signed six gun safety bills in October 2024 addressing dealer warnings, pistol converters, extreme-risk orders, merchant category codes, and safe-storage information. Three chapter amendments followed in April 2025.
Hardaway produced important relief in the places-of-worship litigation, but it should not be treated as blanket statewide carry permission for every license holder.
The Second Circuit largely upheld New York's Concealed Carry Improvement Act in consolidated litigation, and the Supreme Court declined certiorari in April 2025, leaving most CCIA provisions in force.
The U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen struck down New York's century-old "proper cause" requirement for concealed carry licenses, establishing a new constitutional framework for evaluating firearms regulations nationwide.
Senate Bill 8411, which would have required the Superintendent of State Police to provide the Attorney General with direct, real-time access to the criminal gun clearinghouse, was vetoed by Governor Hochul on October 16, 2025.
Signed into law on October 16, 2025, Senate Bill 1985 requires police officers responding to reports of family violence to take temporary custody of firearms for not less than 120 hours (five days), creating a mandatory cooling-off period.
The 2025-2026 state budget bill, signed as Chapter 55 of the Laws of 2025, includes Part MM establishing the New York State Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a permanent state agency dedicated to coordinating gun violence reduction efforts.
Signed into law on April 3, 2025, Senate Bill 745 removes ammunition dealers from provisions requiring payment card networks to use a specific merchant category code (MCC) for firearm merchants, addressing concerns that ammunition-only retailers were unintentionally captured by the tracking mandate.
Signed into law on April 3, 2025, Senate Bill 743 expands New York's existing consumer warning requirement, previously limited to handguns, to include rifles and shotguns, requiring dealers to provide warnings about the risk of death or suicide in homes where firearms are present.
Signed into law on April 3, 2025, Senate Bill 744 amends New York Penal Law to include pistol converters in the statutory definition of a rapid-fire modification device, closing a gap that allowed certain auto-sear and switch devices to evade classification.