Can anyone shed any light on this: I built an AR-15 in New York state, of parts that I purchased via the internet and through a local gun shop. I'm talking with a friend and he says "you can't have that gun in Albany, they have an assault weapons ban". So I dig into the law a bit and they seem to say "Assult rifle generally means any rifle that looks scary". No mention of pre or post ban, just a series of gun models and their "clones". What I don't understand is that if the state says that it is OK for me to have the rifle, how can a city pick and choose which rifle is OK? It doesn't make any sense, and while I don't live in Albany, I might need to go through it to get to the range. I can see NYC being separate from all of the state's gun laws, but this suggests to me that every town can be arbitrary on their ordinances. Anybody else deal with this crap?

Some states (looks like NY is one) allow their towns to add additional restrictions.  Other states only allow the state Govt to regulate fireamrs related matters.

It a prime reason why gunowners MUST know their federal and state laws.  Sometimes its too easy to become an unintential criminal.