NY State Gun Laws

New York State law requires firearms dealers to run a background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for any transfer, sale, exchange, or disposal of a firearm, except between immediate family members. These requirements include but are not limited to private sales, sales at gun shows, and to online firearm sellers. Once the NICS background check is performed, the dealer must send a report to the state.  To learn more about New York’s background check system and licensing requirements see N.Y. Penal Law § 400 and N.Y. Penal Law § 265.

Click here for more information about NY’s background check laws.

New York State law requires a license for a pistol or revolver in order to have and possess in a household or business, to carry concealed by a messenger employed by a banking institution, by a judge or justice of a New York court, as a state employee in the department of corrections, or otherwise. To learn more about New York’s licensing requirements see N.Y. Penal Law § 400.

Click here for more information about NY’s Gun Licensing and Registration laws.

The manufacture, transport, sale, transfer or disposing or possessing of an assault weapon is prohibited by New York State law.  

An “assault weapon” is defined as a semi-automatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has a least one of numerous features or characteristics including but not limited to: a folding or telescope stock; a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon; a thumbhole stock; a second handgrip or a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand; a bayonet mount; a flash suppressor, muzzle break, muzzle compensator, or a threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor, muzzle break, or muzzle compensator, or a grenade launcher. For a comprehensive list of all firearms that are covered by New York’s assault weapons ban law see N.Y. Penal Law § 265.00 (22); see also N.Y. Penal Law § 400.00 (16-a).

Click here for more information about NY’s laws about Assault Weapons and High Capacity Magazines.

Gun dealers, or those who engage “in the business of purchasing, selling, keeping for sale, loaning, leasing, or in any manner disposing of, any assault weapon, large capacity ammunition feeding device, pistol or revolver,” must obtain a state license in order to conduct business according to New York law. (N.Y. Penal Law § 400). 

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Although New York law does not require guns to be safely stored in all circumstances, New York’s strong safe storage law requires a gun to be locked in a “safe storage depository” if the gun owner:

1. lives with a child who is under sixteen years old; or 
2. knows or has reason to know that a person under sixteen is likely to access the gun; or
3. knows or has reason to know that a person the owner lives with is prohibited from possessing a gun because they have a felony conviction, a mental health adjudication or commitment, a conviction for a serious misdemeanor, or because of an extreme risk protection order or other protective order. 

A “safe storage depository” is defined as a container that is incapable of being unlocked without a key or combination lock, or use of a trigger lock when not carried or under the immediate possession or control of the gun owner.  To learn more about NY’s safe storage requirements as they apply to gun dealers and gun owners see NY General Business Law § 396-ee; see also NY Penal Law § 265.45. 

Gun owners, firearms dealers, or any other person in lawful possession of a firearm or ammunition are required to report the loss or theft of guns or ammunition to the police or sheriff’s office within 24 hours. See N.Y. Penal Law § 400.10.

If a “Mental Health Professional” determines that a person they are treating is “likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others,” the mental health provider must report the patient’s name (or other identifying information that does not disclose private medical information), to the New York State Director of Community Services. This report must then be submitted to the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services for the sole and exclusive purpose of determining whether the identified person is prohibited from possessing a gun under New York State or federal law. For more information about New York’s law addressing guns and mental health see N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law §§ 9.4644; see also https://nics.ny.gov/docs/guidance.pdf.

New York’s Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) is a civil court-issued order that prohibits people found to be dangerous to themselves or others from temporarily purchasing or possessing a firearm, rifle, or shotgun. ERPOs can be used to prevent mass shootings, suicides, domestic violence, and interpersonal gun violence.

Who can petition for an ERPO? 

1. Police Officer or District Attorney 
2. Family or Household Member School Administrator 
3. School Designee: Anyone chosen by the school to start a case, like teachers, guidance counselors, school psychologists, school nurses, and coaches.

Where is an ERPO petition filed?

File the ERPO petition with the NYS Supreme Court in the county where the allegedly dangerous individual (the “respondent”) lives. To locate the appropriate court go to the NY courts website.

What behavior may warrant the issuance of an ERPO?

• Threat or act of violence or use of physical force directed toward self or another person 
• Violation or alleged violation of an Order of Protection 
• Pending charge or conviction for an offense involving use of a weapon 
• Reckless use, display or brandishing of a gun 
• Prior violation of an ERPO 
• Recent or ongoing abuse of controlled substances or alcohol 
• Evidence of recent acquisition of a gun or another deadly weapon, dangerous instrument, or ammunition
• Other behavior indicating that the individual is likely to harm self or others 
• Timing: Did the behavior happen within 6 months of the time of the application?

What happens after the final ERPO expires?

1. Return guns to lawful owner 
2. Return guns to respondent

For more information about NY’s ERPO process see fact sheet from NYAGV and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence; see also NYS courts website.

New York State prohibits the manufacture and sale of untraceable ghost guns, and requires gunsmiths to serialize and register firearms, rifles, shotguns, and unfinished receivers.  So-called “ghost guns” are unserialized guns made with 3D printers or assembled at home from kits easily purchased online. Ghost guns pose a serious threat to public safety, as people who might otherwise be prevented from owning firearms via federal and state background check laws could easily purchase or assemble untraceable guns from unlicensed dealers. 

New York also prohibits the possession of unfinished receivers by anyone other than a licensed gunsmith and creates the crimes of criminal sale of an unfinished frame or receiver. 

Under New York State law anyone convicted of a felony or “serious offense” is prohibited from acquiring a pistol permit, or from purchasing rifles or shotguns. “Serious offenses” include several domestic violence misdemeanors–offenses that are committed against a member of the same family or household–including but not limited to assault, menacing, strangulation, trespassing, and harassment. See N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 370.15.

Access to a gun is a serious threat to the safety of domestic violence victims. New York State domestic violence-related laws provide for permissive or mandatory suspension or revocation of a firearm license depending upon the circumstances of the domestic violence incident. The court hearing the domestic violence case evaluates the facts and will make an immediate decision as to whether to suspend or revoke the domestic violence offender’s license. For more information on domestic violence protection orders and how the temporary or final order of protection process works in New York’s family or criminal courts see N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law §530.14 and Family Court Act §842-a; see also N.Y. Penal Law §400.00 et seq.

Under New York State law, a law enforcement officer may, when responding to a report of a domestic violence offense, take temporary custody of any firearm (and any firearm license) on the premises that is in plain sight or discovered pursuant to a consensual or lawful search.  The gun owner or person in possession of the gun will be given a receipt by the responding officer describing the weapons and/or license and the firearm’s identification or serial number as well as the process and location for recovery.  The gun owner will be entitled to recover his or her firearm within 48 hours if there is no order of protection or extreme risk protection order issued. For more information see N.Y. Crim. Pro. §  140.10.

To carry a concealed (hidden) gun in New York State, residents must acquire a pistol license. The concealed carry license is a type of pistol license. New York is currently known as a “May Issue” state. Therefore, rules for getting a license depend on the discretion of local law enforcement who rely on a combination of local and state law. A person looking to receive a license for a handgun or to concealed carry must be either (1) in the military or (2) at least twenty-one years old. This person applies to local law enforcement who may grant the license. For more information on concealed carry see N.Y. Penal Law § 400. Although New York law does not address carrying guns openly and in public view, New York State does not issue licenses to open carry. However, there is also no law restricting the open carry of long guns. 

Click here for more information about NYS’s guns in public laws

The gun industry is too often shielded from liability by federal law–the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA)–despite the fact that guns are taking the lives of over 40,000 Americans a year.   In 2021, New York State amended it’s general public nuisance law to explicitly regulate firearms and eliminate the gun industry’s “PLCAA defense” and any ambiguity for the courts.  New Yorkers now have an avenue to sue the gun industry for reckless practices that lead to gun deaths and injuries within New York State.    For more information about gun industry immunity and PLCCA, read these reports by the Center for American Progress and the Violence Policy Center.

Microstamping is a technology that uses lasers to make unique, microscopic engravings in the interior of a gun. Each time a gun is fired, these engravings etch a unique code onto the cartridge, which is the ammunition consisting of both a cylindrical casing containing an explosive charge and the bullet that is ejected from a gun. This unique code can then be used to identify the make, model, and serial number of a gun just by the cartridge alone. Without microstamping technology, current ballistics identification technology only allows law enforcement to identify such information about a gun only if law enforcement has the gun in their possession.

Passed in 2022, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is now required to certify that microstamping-enabled pistols are technologically viable, and if certified as viable, microstamping ammunition must be implemented in all semiautomatic pistols sold in New York. The law also enforces violations for unlawful sales of non-microstamping enabled pistols.

This law advances existing ballistics identification technology by permitting law enforcement to locate just the cartridge, rather than the gun, at a crime scene in order to identify the specific gun used in the commission of the crime. Furthermore, requiring microstamping features in pistols sold in New York will likely reduce community gun violence by aiding law enforcement efforts to solve homicides and deter future crime involving guns.