Assault Weapons Ban and Where It Stands

What Is an Assault Weapons Ban

An assault weapons ban is a law that stops the sale, making, or transfer of certain semiautomatic guns, such as AR-15-style rifles, and usually of magazines that hold more than 10 or 15 rounds. A semiautomatic gun fires one round each time the trigger is pulled. Most bans let people keep guns they already owned when the law took effect.

“Assault weapon” is a term that each law defines for itself, so the list of banned guns differs from place to place. RAND notes that the term “is controversial” and usually covers semiautomatic guns with features such as folding stocks or pistol grips. An assault weapon is not a machine gun. As Justice Kavanaugh wrote in 2025, semiautomatic rifles and handguns “are distinct from automatic firearms such as the M–16 automatic rifle used by the military.”

Where the Fight Stands

The Supreme Court signaled in 2025 that it would take up the question, and in June 2026 it did. When it turned away a challenge to Maryland’s ban in June 2025, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the Court “should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two” (Snope v. Brown). A year later, on June 30, 2026, it granted two cases and combined them for one hour of argument.

Where Assault Weapons Bans Stand

As of September 25, 2026

• Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins In litigation, argument set

  Granted June 30, 2026 and combined. Set for argument on December 2, 2026. The question is whether the Second Amendment protects AR-15-style rifles. (source)

• Maryland ban (Snope v. Brown) Final ruling, review denied

  The Supreme Court declined to hear the challenge on June 2, 2025, leaving the Fourth Circuit ruling in place. Justices Alito and Gorsuch would have taken it; Justice Thomas dissented. (source)

• Virginia ban (HB 217 and SB 749) Blocked by a court, until the Supreme Court rules

  A Washington County judge put the ban on new sales on hold starting July 21, 2026. A July 28 federal order paused the Justice Department's suit, and all four lawsuits now wait on the Supreme Court. (source)

• Rhode Island ban Law

  Sales, manufacture and transfer of listed semiautomatic guns ended July 1, 2026. People may keep guns they already own. (source)

• Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 (H.R. 3115) Proposal

  Introduced April 30, 2025 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, with no further action. It had 194 cosponsors, all Democrats, as of September 28, 2026. (source)

• The 1994 federal ban Ended

  Expired September 13, 2004, under its own 10-year sunset clause. Congress has not renewed it. (source)

Source: Supreme Court dockets 25-238, 25-566 and 24-203; govinfo; Giffords Law Center; VPM News

The U.S. Justice Department is on the other side of these laws now. It filed its own lawsuit against Virginia’s ban, which a federal court paused on July 28, 2026 (VPM News). On September 9, the Solicitor General asked for time to argue in the Supreme Court case (Supreme Court docket).

What the 1994 Federal Ban Covered

The federal ban defined an assault weapon two ways: by name, and by features. It became law on September 13, 1994, as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. It made it unlawful “to manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon” (Pub. L. 103-322, Sec. 110102).

The law named specific guns, including the Colt AR-15, Kalashnikov models, the Uzi, and the TEC-9, along with “copies or duplicates” of them. It also covered any semiautomatic rifle that could accept a detachable magazine and had at least two of five features:

Similar two-feature tests covered pistols and shotguns. A companion section banned new magazines holding “more than 10 rounds of ammunition.” Two limits shaped everything that followed. Guns and magazines lawfully owned before the law took effect stayed legal to own and sell. And Section 110105 repealed the whole subtitle automatically “10 years after” enactment, which is why it ended in 2004.

1. 1989 California acts first The first state law regulating assault weapons.
2. 1994 Federal ban passes Bans making and selling named guns and new magazines over 10 rounds, for 10 years.
3. 2004 Federal ban expires The sunset clause ends it on September 13. Congress does not renew it.
4. 2023 Illinois and Washington Two more states pass bans, bringing the count to 10 plus D.C.
5. 2024 Fourth Circuit upholds Maryland The full court rules 10 to 5 in Bianchi v. Brown.
6. 2025 Court declines Maryland case Justice Kavanaugh says the Court should take up the issue soon.
7. 2026 Supreme Court takes the question Rhode Island's ban takes effect, Virginia passes one, and the Court grants review on June 30.

Sources: Giffords Law Center state pages; Pub. L. 103-322; Fourth Circuit opinion in Bianchi v. Brown; Supreme Court dockets 24-203 and 25-238.

Assault Weapons Laws, 1989 to 2026: 1989: California acts first (The first state law regulating assault weapons.). 1994: Federal ban passes (Bans making and selling named guns and new magazines over 10 rounds, for 10 years.). 2004: Federal ban expires (The sunset clause ends it on September 13. Congress does not renew it.). 2023: Illinois and Washington (Two more states pass bans, bringing the count to 10 plus D.C.). 2024: Fourth Circuit upholds Maryland (The full court rules 10 to 5 in Bianchi v. Brown.). 2025: Court declines Maryland case (Justice Kavanaugh says the Court should take up the issue soon.). 2026: Supreme Court takes the question (Rhode Island's ban takes effect, Virginia passes one, and the Court grants review on June 30.).

1989: California became the first state to regulate assault weapons, according to the Giffords Law Center.

1994: Congress passed the federal ban with a 10-year limit built in.

2004: The ban expired on September 13, and Congress did not renew it.

2023: Illinois passed its ban on January 10, and Washington passed a ban on sales and manufacture later that year.

2024: The full Fourth Circuit upheld Maryland’s ban on August 6.

2025: The Supreme Court declined to review that ruling on June 2.

2026: Rhode Island’s sales ban took effect July 1, a state court put Virginia’s new ban on hold starting July 21, and the Supreme Court agreed to decide the question.

What the Research Found

The best-known evaluation of the federal ban found real effects on which guns showed up in crime, but not clear effects on gun violence. Christopher Koper and colleagues studied the ban for the National Institute of Justice. Their 2004 report found that after the ban, “the share of gun crimes involving AWs declined by 17% to 72%” across six cities they examined (Koper, Woods and Roth, 2004).

The same report explains why that drop did not show up in overall violence. Assault weapons “were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban,” about 2% of crime guns on average across 38 sources. The magazine ban mattered more in theory, but millions of older magazines stayed legal and new imports kept coming, so “the ban has not yet reduced the use of LCMs in crime.” Koper’s conclusion on renewing it was cautious: its “effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

RAND’s review of all the studies since then reaches a similar place. RAND, a nonpartisan research group, sorts evidence into four levels: inconclusive, limited, moderate, and supportive. For assault weapons and high-capacity magazine bans, no outcome reaches moderate or supportive (RAND, updated January 29, 2026).

2

3

3

• Limited evidence (2 outcomes) Mass shootings (magazine bans reduce them); gun industry (short-term price and sales rises)
• Inconclusive evidence (3 outcomes) Violent crime, suicide, police shootings
• No studies met RAND criteria (3 outcomes) Defensive gun use, hunting and recreation, unintentional deaths

Source: RAND Corporation, The Effects of Bans on the Sale of Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines, updated January 29, 2026. Counts of RAND's eight outcomes by evidence rating.

The one “limited” finding on violence is about magazines, not the guns themselves. RAND reports that among three stronger studies of mass shootings, one found state assault weapons bans reduced school shooting casualties and one found high-capacity magazine bans reduced mass public shootings. RAND also cautions that these two kinds of laws are almost always passed together, which makes their separate effects hard to untangle.

Why the effect on overall crime is hard to see: these guns are a small share of gun crime but a large share of mass shootings.

All three figures come from RAND’s review, which cites FBI homicide data (401 rifle homicides out of 15,795) and a 2021 synthesis of mass shooting data by Smart and Schell. RAND notes that most gun crimes involve handguns, and most handguns are not assault weapons under state laws.

Which States Ban Assault Weapons

Twelve states and Washington, D.C. ban the sale of assault weapons in some form. RAND counted 10 states and D.C. as of January 1, 2025. Since then, Rhode Island’s ban took effect on July 1, 2026, and Virginia passed one that a court has blocked. Two more states, Colorado and Minnesota, regulate these guns without a general ban.

This table summarizes each state’s law. It is not legal advice, and details such as which models are listed, magazine limits, and registration rules differ a great deal. Check your state attorney general’s website before buying, selling, or moving a firearm across state lines.

How Courts Have Ruled

Several federal appeals courts have upheld these bans, for different reasons. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen told courts to judge gun laws by whether they fit the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation. Courts have applied that test to assault weapons bans in different ways.

The full Fourth Circuit upheld Maryland’s ban on August 6, 2024, by a vote of 10 to 5 (Bianchi v. Brown). Writing for the majority, Judge Wilkinson described what the weapons can do in the hands of attackers, drawing on police accounts of mass shootings. At the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, which killed 19 students and two teachers, the first officers on scene “concluded they were outgunned[, a]nd that they could die” after identifying the gunman’s weapon as an “AR,” and “opted to wait for the arrival of a Border Patrol SWAT team … based more than 60 miles away,” the opinion recounts, quoting the Texas Tribune. The majority held that AR-15-style rifles fall outside the arms the Second Amendment protects.

Other courts reached the same result by other routes. The Second Circuit found that assault weapons may be protected but upheld Connecticut’s law as part of a historical tradition of regulating “dangerous and unusual” weapons, according to The Trace. The Seventh Circuit upheld Cook County’s ban by treating assault weapons as closer to military weapons. Those two rulings are the ones now before the Supreme Court.

One appeals court has gone the other way. On July 17, 2026, the full Third Circuit held that New Jersey’s ban violates the Second Amendment as applied to semiautomatic rifles, and it struck the state’s limit on magazines over 10 rounds too (Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General). The Trace called it the first time a federal appeals court had struck down a state assault weapons ban. On August 4, the court paused its ruling while New Jersey asks the Supreme Court to review the case, so the ban stays in force for now (New Jersey Monitor).

The Honest Disagreement

The case against these bans rests on how many Americans own the guns. The Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) that the Second Amendment protects weapons “in common use” for lawful purposes, part of a line of cases our 2nd Amendment explainer traces from 1791 to 2026. Justice Kavanaugh wrote in 2025 that “Americans today possess an estimated 20 to 30 million AR–15s,” that AR-15s “are legal in 41 of the 50 States,” and that challengers “have a strong argument that AR–15s are in ‘common use’ by law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected.” In dissent from the Fourth Circuit’s ruling, Judge Richardson wrote that “the Second Amendment is not a second-class right subject to the whimsical discretion of federal judges,” and that Maryland’s ban “prohibits the possession of arms commonly possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” The National Rifle Association, which sued to stop Virginia’s ban, says owners use these rifles “for self-defense, they’re used for competition, they’re used for hunting” (VPM News).

The case for these bans rests on what the guns do in the worst attacks. States defending the laws, like the Fourth Circuit majority, point to the role of AR-15-style rifles in mass shootings and in attacks where police were outgunned. Defending Virginia’s law, a spokesperson for the state attorney general said, “These protections are critical, evidence-based tools to protect public safety” (VPM News). The law’s Democratic sponsors noted that it does not stop people from owning these guns if they bought them before July 1, 2026.

Both sides lean on facts the other does not dispute. Justice Kavanaugh himself noted that handguns, “not rifles,” are used in “the vast majority of murders,” which cuts against the bans’ effect on everyday crime, while the same rifles appear in a far larger share of mass shootings, which is where supporters focus. The research has not settled how much these bans change either number.

What the Evidence Leaves Out

• Most studies measure the guns and magazines together. Because nearly every law bans both, researchers rarely know which one produced an effect.
• The 1994 ban was designed to work slowly. It let every gun and magazine already made stay in circulation, so Koper’s team wrote that its effects would occur “only gradually.” It expired before they could be fully measured.
• Rare events are hard to study. Koper’s report calls mass public shootings and murders of police “very rare,” so even a real effect on them can be too small to detect in national statistics.
• Definitions differ. Each law sets its own list of guns and its own features test, so a study of one state’s law may not apply to another’s.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a federal assault weapons ban now?

No. The federal ban expired on September 13, 2004, and Congress has not passed a new one. A bill to restore it, H.R. 3115, has been in the House Judiciary Committee since April 2025 with no action.

Is an AR-15 considered an assault weapon?

It depends on the law. The 1994 federal ban named the Colt AR-15 directly. State bans today define assault weapons by listing models by name, by a test of military-style features, or both. Where no state or local ban applies, AR-15-style rifles are legal.

Are assault weapons bans being overturned?

Not so far. Several federal appeals courts have upheld these bans. The full Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s ban on July 17, 2026, but paused that ruling on August 4 while New Jersey seeks Supreme Court review, so the law stays in force. The Supreme Court will hear challenges to the Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut bans on December 2, 2026, and a ruling is likely by June 2027.

Is Virginia's assault weapons ban in effect?

No. Virginia passed a ban in 2026, but a state judge put it on hold starting July 21, 2026, and all four lawsuits against it are paused until the Supreme Court rules.

What You Can Do

1. Know your state’s law before you buy or sell. State definitions differ sharply. Check your state attorney general’s website, and do not move a firearm into a state with a ban without checking that state’s rules first.

2. Follow the Supreme Court case. Viramontes v. Cook County is set for argument on December 2, 2026. The Supreme Court docket posts every brief as it is filed.

3. Tell your state legislators where you stand. State lawmakers write these laws, and several states are waiting on the Court before acting. Our guide to writing your representatives explains how to make a message count.

4. Learn the gun laws that are not on hold. Red flag laws let families ask a court to remove guns from someone in crisis, and ghost gun rules govern homemade firearms. Neither depends on the outcome of this case.