Division of Criminal Justice Services
ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN: Effective November 1, 2000
Since 1994, federal law has restricted the possession of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. New York law, however, did not specifically address the possession and sale of military-style weapons or those with excessively large ammunition capacities.
The provisions contained in Chapter 189 [b]mirror[/b] the current provisions of federal law by defining and prohibiting activities related to a "semiautomatic assault weapon" and a "large capacity ammunition feeding device".
The term "assault weapon" includes a designated list of federally barred firearms, as well as semiautomatic rifles, shotguns or pistols that possess at least two specified characteristics, such as a folding or telescoping stock, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor or a silencer. A specific list of weapons manufactured on or before October 1, 1993, which are set forth in federal law, are not banned. The term "large capacity ammunition feeding device" means a magazine or similar device manufactured after September 13, 1994 which has the capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition, but does not include a tubular device which only accepts .22 caliber ammunition.
The Penal Law will now include the possession of an assault weapon and the possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device within
its definition of the class D violent felony of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Thus, the law will now treat the illegal possession of an unloaded assault weapon as seriously as the possession of a loaded handgun. Moreover, because this law adds an "assault weapon" to the definition of a "firearm," the current penalties attaching to the criminal use of a firearm will also apply to the use of an assault weapon.
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/pio/pastmsgs/gunbill.htm#3