FIRE Act Voids All State and Local Firearm Magazine Capacity Limits 30 Days After Enactment

The newly introduced Freedom from Improper Regulation and Enforcement Act, or the FIRE Act, aims to completely eliminate restrictions on firearm magazine capacity across the United States. This bill acts as a federal override, prohibiting federal employees from creating or enforcing any rule that limits or bans a magazine based on how many rounds it can hold. Crucially, it also declares that any existing state or local law restricting magazine capacity is immediately rendered unenforceable 30 days after the Act becomes law.

The Federal Firehose: Voids on Local Laws

This legislation is straightforward, which means its impact is massive. Section 2 is the core of the bill, and it explicitly preempts state and local authority over this specific type of firearm regulation. If you live in a state or city that currently limits magazine capacity—say, to 10 rounds—that law vanishes under the FIRE Act. For everyday people, this means that the regulatory environment around firearms will become uniform nationwide, but it comes at the cost of local control. State governments and local police departments that relied on these capacity limits as a public safety measure will have those tools removed immediately.

Defining the Details: What's a Magazine?

The Act takes care to define its terms clearly. A “firearm magazine” is defined broadly as any device, whether fixed or detachable, that holds and feeds ammunition into a gun. The “capacity” is simply the total number of rounds it can store. This clarity ensures that the prohibition covers all current and future types of ammunition feeding devices. The effect is simple: once this bill is active, there will be no legal mechanism at any level of government—federal, state, or municipal—to limit the size of a magazine an individual can legally possess or purchase.

Real-World Impact: Trading Local Safety for National Uniformity

For firearm owners who travel or live near state lines, this bill offers a clear benefit: they no longer have to worry about crossing into a state with different capacity laws. It standardizes possession rules nationally. However, the flip side is the removal of regulatory tools used by communities concerned about gun violence. Local governments often enact capacity limits, arguing they reduce the lethality of mass shootings by forcing attackers to reload more often. The FIRE Act removes that option entirely, establishing a clear federal mandate that capacity cannot be regulated. This is a significant shift of power, taking regulatory authority away from local officials and centralizing the decision at the federal level, regardless of local public safety concerns.