To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit capacity-based restrictions on firearm magazines, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Risch (for himself, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Crapo, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill would prohibit any capacity-based restrictions on firearm magazines at all levels of government. It amends federal law to prevent federal officers from enforcing regulations limiting magazine capacity and nullifies any state or local laws that restrict, ban, or penalize firearm magazines based on how many rounds they can hold.
Who Benefits and How
Firearm manufacturers and ammunition companies benefit by being able to sell high-capacity magazines nationwide without state restrictions limiting their market. Gun owners with high-capacity magazines benefit by having their existing magazines remain legal and being able to purchase them freely regardless of where they live. Gun rights organizations gain a significant policy victory as this creates federal preemption of state gun regulations. The bill takes effect 30 days after enactment.
Who Bears the Burden and How
States with existing magazine capacity laws (such as California, New York, Colorado, and others with bans on magazines over 10-15 rounds) would have their laws nullified and lose the ability to regulate magazine capacity. Local governments with similar ordinances would also lose enforcement authority. Law enforcement agencies in these jurisdictions would no longer be able to enforce capacity restrictions as part of their public safety efforts. Gun safety advocacy organizations would see years of state-level policy work overturned by federal preemption.
Key Provisions
- Federal ban on capacity regulations: No federal officer or employee may prescribe or enforce any regulation limiting firearm magazine capacity
- State/local preemption: Any state or local law imposing limitations, prohibitions, or penalties based on magazine capacity "shall have no force or effect"
- Definitions added to federal law: Defines "firearm magazine" as a device used to store and feed ammunition into a firearm, and "capacity" as the number of rounds storable in the magazine
- 30-day implementation: The prohibitions take effect 30 days after the bill becomes law
- Amends Title 18: Changes are made to the existing federal firearms statutes (Sections 921, 926, and 927 of the U.S. Code)
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Prohibits federal, state, and local governments from imposing any capacity-based restrictions on firearm magazines
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Preempt state and local magazine capacity restrictions through federal law; expand federal firearms preemption authority"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Firearm manufacturers
- Gun rights organizations
- Gun owners with high-capacity magazines
- Ammunition manufacturers
Likely Burden Bearers
- State governments with magazine capacity laws
- Local governments with magazine capacity ordinances
- Gun safety organizations
- Law enforcement in states with capacity restrictions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "federal_officers"
- → Any officer or employee of the Federal Government
- "state_local_governments"
- → State or local governments
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A fixed or detachable device used to store ammunition and feed ammunition into a firearm
With respect to a firearm magazine, the number of rounds of ammunition that can be stored in the magazine
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology