TRANSFERRING AMMUNITION IN NEW YORK: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

White Paper Summary

The New York Safe Act is a minefield. One notoriously vague area pertains to transfers of ammunition. Only one section of the NY Safe Act deals with ammunition. The matter of transactions involving ammunition is found and dealt with in Section 50 of the New York Safe Act. Section 50 of the NY Safe Act is codified in the Penal Code of New York: NY CLS Penal § 400.03, titled, “Sellers of ammunition.” Moreover, Section 50 is the only section of the NY Safe Act that deals with transfers of ammunition.

Section 50 says, in pertinent part, “No commercial transfer of ammunition shall take place unless a licensed dealer in firearms or registered seller of ammunition acts as an intermediary between the transferor and the ultimate transferee of the ammunition for the purposes of contacting the statewide license and record database pursuant to this section. Such transfer between the dealer or seller, and transferee must occur in person.” Section 50 talks about what both licensed dealers in firearms and sellers of ammunition must do in order to comply with the Act and, too, what individuals who are neither licensed dealers in firearms or registered sellers of firearms must do in order to comply with the NY Safe Act, when one of the parties wishes to sell a box of ammunition to another party. So, Section 50 is talking explicitly about sales of ammunition. And, that is fine as far as Section 50 goes. But, the Safe Act presents a problem.

The problem is that not all transfers of ammunition between New York residents who lawfully own and possess firearms are typical purchase and sales of ammunition. Some transfers of ammunition from one individual to another individual are not sales at all. They are gifts or bequests of ammunition from one individual to another in a situation where neither individual is in the business of selling firearms or ammunition. So are those kinds of transactions lawful?

Unfortunately, the New York Safe Act – which otherwise has much to say regarding the transfer of firearms defined as ‘assault weapons’ from one person to another person – is silent on ammunition transfers that do amount to sales. So, one must delve deeper into the Penal Code of New York in search of an answer, and we have done this for you.

The laws of New York dealing with ammunition transfers – as with firearms matters, generally – are confusing and complex. In our “White Paper” we explain in detail the intricacies of ammunition transfers. We clarify the issues for you and do our best to provide you with meaningful answers that you can work with.

View And Download The Full White Paper Here.