BILL NUMBER: S7364A
SPONSOR: HOYLMAN-SIGAL
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law and the criminal procedure law, in
relation to the regulation of three-dimensional printed firearms
 
PURPOSE:
To prohibit the use of three-dimensional printers to manufacture ghost
guns, silencers, magazines, or other firearm parts and to prohibit the
sale, distribution and distribution of the digital instructions to do
the same.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 265.10 of the penal law to include the use of
three-dimensional printer and the manufacture of ghost guns, silencers,
or other firearm components in the class D felony of manufacturing
firearms. Creates the class A misdemeanor of the intentional sale of
digital instructions for such manufacturing to a person in New York who
is not a registered or licensed gunsmith.
Section 2 amends section 265.00 of the penal law to add subdivision 36
defining the term "three-dimensional printer."
Section 3 amends subdivision 8 of section 700.05 of the criminal proce-
dure law to include the manufacture, transport, disposition, and deface-
ment of weapons and dangerous instruments in the definition of "desig-
nated offense" for eavesdropping and video surveillance warrants.
Section 4 establishes the severability of the bill.
Section 5 provides the effective date of the bill.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
So-called "ghost guns" --- unregistered, untraceable firearms and
firearm components --- continue to be a major threat to the safety of
New Yorkers, even after the Jose Webster Untraceable Firearms Act banned
the sale of such guns in our state in 2021. Nearly half of all untracea-
ble firearms recovered by New York in 2022 were ghost guns, and the New
York Police Department reports a 75% increase in the seizure of ghost
guns between 2021 and 2022. This is a growing trend: whereas in 2022
365 ghost guns were seized by the NYPD, that number was just 17 in 2018.
This bill would include the manufacture of ghost guns, unfinished gun
parts silencers, magazines, and other firearm components in the existing
class D felony of manufacture of a machine-gun or assault weapon and
clarify that that crime includes the manufacture of such items using a
three-dimensional printer. It would criminalize the intentional sale,
distribution, or disposal of digital instructions that may be used to
program a three-dimensional printer to produce such weapons. This will
ensure that New York's existing prohibition on the manufacture of ghost
guns is comprehensive, precise, and responsive to the technology perpe-
trators may use to commit that crime.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become law.

Statutes affected:
S7364: 265.00 penal law
S7364A: 265.00 penal law