Proposed Federal Ban Targets Semiautomatic 'Assault Weapons' and Magazines Over 15 Rounds: New Rules for Existing Owners

The "Assault Weapons Ban of 2025" is a sweeping piece of federal legislation that aims to prohibit the manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of a wide range of semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns, along with ammunition feeding devices (magazines) that hold more than 15 rounds. For the average person, this bill completely resets the rules for owning and transferring certain firearms.

What’s Banned and What’s Grandfathered?

The core of the bill is Section 2 and 3, which define and ban specific firearms based on a combination of features and function. A semiautomatic rifle that takes a detachable magazine and has features like a pistol grip, a folding stock, or a threaded barrel is now defined as an "assault weapon." This definition also applies to pistols over 50 ounces or with stabilizing braces, and shotguns that take detachable magazines. The bill also bans any magazine holding more than 15 rounds, making the common 30-round rifle magazine illegal to sell or manufacture going forward.

If you legally own one of these defined weapons or magazines before the bill becomes law, you are "grandfathered" in. This means you can keep it, but the bill immediately imposes two major new restrictions on your ownership. First, you must store the weapon securely, ensuring it’s inaccessible to anyone legally prohibited from having a firearm. Fail to do this, and you risk losing the weapon entirely. Second, the bill requires all newly manufactured banned items to be engraved with the date of manufacture and a serial number, making future enforcement much easier to track.

The Mandatory Dealer Tax on Private Transfers

Section 5 introduces a massive change for anyone who owns a grandfathered weapon and wants to sell, loan, or give it away privately. Currently, in many states, you can sell a firearm to another private citizen without involving a licensed dealer. This bill bans that practice for grandfathered assault weapons. Instead, any private transfer must now be processed through a licensed dealer (an FFL) who must conduct a background check, just as if they were selling the weapon themselves. This process kicks in 90 days after the law is enacted.

This isn't just an inconvenience; it’s an economic hurdle. The Attorney General is tasked with setting a maximum fee that dealers can charge for handling these transfers. If you’re a private seller, you’ll now have to pay a dealer fee and coordinate the transfer, adding time and cost to what was previously a simple transaction between two legal adults. For people in rural areas, this means potentially driving hours to the nearest FFL just to legally transfer a rifle to a neighbor or family member.

New Rules for Law Enforcement and Buy-Backs

While the bill heavily restricts civilian ownership, it carves out broad exceptions for law enforcement and government agencies (Section 3). Police departments, including campus law enforcement officers, can still manufacture, purchase, and possess these banned items for official use. Interestingly, retired law enforcement officers can keep any grandfathered weapon issued to them upon retirement.

Furthermore, Section 6 allows states to use federal Byrne grant money—funds typically used for local law enforcement programs—to run buy-back programs for these newly banned weapons and magazines. This means federal dollars could subsidize state or local programs designed to take these items out of circulation, offering cash to citizens who voluntarily surrender them.