The Firearms Safety Amendment
I. An Epidemic Without an Institution
Six of the other ten amendments in this book create or strengthen a federal institution: an Office, an Authority, a Commission. Because rights without an enforcement mechanism are just words. Firearm violence has no such institution. It has the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an agency Congress has deliberately denied the authority most regulators take for granted: no national licensing standard, no mandate for insurance, no unified point-of-sale requirement, and, since 1986, a specific statutory prohibition on the one tool that would let ATF do its job the way every other federal regulator does, a searchable national registry.
The result shows up in the numbers. In the first half of 2026, the country recorded 6,458 gun deaths and 11,781 gun injuries, the lowest six-month total in a decade, real progress. But still averaged more than one mass shooting a day, and 2024 alone saw 27,593 gun suicides and 15,364 gun homicides. No other developed country accepts a baseline like this as normal, and no other developed country regulates firearm ownership as loosely as the United States does.
II. Borrowing What Already Works
This amendment does not invent new regulatory machinery. It takes tools that already exist somewhere in American law or American policing practice, and makes them universal and constitutional rather than optional and local.
The excise tax model is ninety years old. The Pittman-Robertson Act has taxed every firearm and box of ammunition sold in the country since 1937, at 10 to 11 percent, dedicating the proceeds to wildlife conservation, a tax nobody seriously argues amounts to a ban. This amendment applies the identical mechanism to a different, equally overdue purpose: funding direct compensation and trauma care for the victims of the violence firearms cause.
The insurance model already exists in early form at the state level. Washington’s HB 1504 would require firearm owners to carry $25,000 in liability coverage, but nowhere does it apply nationally. The storage model is moving the same direction: California and Illinois tightened their requirements for 2026, and Virginia’s pending legislation would mandate biometric-locked storage for loaded firearms. The vehicle-shooting restriction in this amendment is not new policy invention at all, it is the Police Executive Research Forum’s own use-of-force guidance, already followed informally by most of the country’s largest police departments, made uniform and constitutional instead of department-by-department and reversible by the next chief. And the federal-registry question is already settled law in the opposite direction of what many assume: the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act has barred a national gun registry since 1986, and this amendment does not disturb that, it continues to let states decide for themselves whether to share their own licensing records with Washington.
The newer provisions in this amendment borrow the same way. Extreme Risk Protection Orders is a court process for temporarily separating a genuinely dangerous person from a firearm, before rather than after a tragedy, is not a novel proposal. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already operate some version of one. The minimum age this amendment sets for ownership, and the narrow exceptions that let a minor still fire a rented firearm at a supervised range or use a parent’s firearm for hunting, track federal law that has stood since 1994. The Youth Handgun Safety Act already bars anyone under eighteen from possessing a handgun, with the same kind of parental-consent exception for hunting and target practice that this amendment extends to every firearm. The domestic-violence and mental-illness disqualifications built into this amendment’s definition of a “prohibited person” are not new either. They restate categories federal law has used since the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment. And the requirement that a new firearm ship with a trigger lock in the box has been federal law for licensed handgun dealers since 2005; this amendment simply extends a requirement that has already survived two decades without controversy to every firearm and every seller, matching what Massachusetts and Oregon already require at the state level.
Where this amendment does break from current practice, it breaks from practice that has already been tested and found wanting. The 2024 Supreme Court decision striking down the federal ban on bump stocks, Garland v. Cargill, turned entirely on a technical reading of the phrase “single function of the trigger” in a decades-old statute. Not on any finding that bump stocks serve a legitimate purpose. This amendment’s prohibition on rate-of-fire enhancement devices is written to avoid that exact trap, defining the prohibited conduct by what a device does rather than by how its trigger mechanism is engineered. And the protection this amendment gives a traveler passing through a state with different gun laws is not an invention, it strengthens a federal protection that already exists on paper. The Firearm Owners’ Protection Act’s “safe passage” provision, which courts have read so narrowly that a fully compliant traveler can still be arrested, jailed, and made to fight the charge after the fact. This amendment closes that gap by barring the arrest itself, not merely providing a defense once the arrest has already happened.
III. What This Amendment Does
The amendment establishes twenty-six interlocking sections, which fall into four groups: who may own a firearm, how it must be stored and carried, what happens at every point of sale and transfer, and how the amendment enforces itself.
Ownership starts with the same national licensing system as before. A background check, safety training, periodic renewal, but now sets a floor no one under eighteen may cross, while preserving the traditional, supervised uses that floor was never meant to disturb: a minor may still fire a rented firearm at a licensed range, use a parent’s or guardian’s firearm for hunting or target practice with that parent’s or guardian’s consent and direct supervision, or take a certified safety course, exactly as federal law already permits for handguns today. With the adult bearing full responsibility throughout. The amendment also, for the first time, defines who is disqualified from owning a firearm at all, a felony conviction, a domestic-violence conviction or active protective order, an adjudicated serious mental illness, unlawful drug use, or an active Extreme Risk Protection Order. And creates the court process behind that last category: a State-run system letting a law enforcement officer or family member petition a court to temporarily remove a dangerous person’s access to a firearm, with real due process built in from the start. An emergency order without notice only for a genuinely urgent threat, capped at two weeks, followed by a full hearing with a meaningful evidentiary standard before any extended order can issue, capped at one year, with a path back to eligibility once the danger has passed.
Storage and carry are tightened at both ends. Every firearm still has to live in a container secured by a biometric lock, but that lock has to include a non-biometric backup, because a lock that answers to only one living person’s fingerprint stops working the moment that person dies. And this amendment adds the process for what happens next: an executor can access the safe, the family can inherit a firearm directly without a dealer if the heir is licensed, or the estate can sell it through a licensed dealer instead, with a ninety-day insurance grace period while that gets sorted out. An owner who loses a firearm, or has one stolen, now has to report it within five days. Closing the loophole that currently lets someone who illegally sold a gun to a prohibited buyer simply claim, if the gun is ever traced, that it was stolen. Negligent storage that lets a minor obtain a firearm and cause death or serious injury is now its own separate felony, on top of whatever else applies. And in public, a State that allows a firearm to be carried openly must now require it to be carried unloaded and trigger-locked; concealed carry is untouched by this amendment entirely, and a State keeps full authority to write its own rules for it, including whether a concealed firearm may be loaded.
Every sale private or commercial, new or used, still has to go through a state-licensed seller who verifies the buyer’s license and runs the background check, but three things are new. A waiting period of at least seventy-two hours now sits between that background check and the moment the buyer takes the firearm home. Ammunition sales are now held to the identical licensing and verification standard as the firearm itself. And every firearm now has to leave the seller’s hands with a trigger lock already in the box, at no charge to the buyer, extending a requirement federal law has already applied to licensed dealers selling handguns since 2005 to every firearm and every seller.
A fifteen percent excise tax on every firearm and unit of ammunition sold, structured the same way the ninety-year-old federal tax on hunting equipment already works, continues to fund a Gun Violence Victims Trust Fund providing direct compensation, trauma care, and survivor support. The Fund is administered, as this amendment now specifies, through a Department of Justice office modeled on the real federal office that already runs the analogous Crime Victims Fund.
States retain the authority to go further and prohibit handguns or multi-shot rifles outright within their own borders, and a person may still transport a firearm across state lines, unloaded, locked, and secured without fear of arrest for the simple act of passing through a state with stricter rules than their own. No one, including a law enforcement officer, may fire into or at a moving or stationary vehicle, except to save a hostage’s life or to stop an active shooter firing from in or near that vehicle. States are not required to share their own licensing records with the federal government, and this amendment continues to bar a national gun registry, just as federal law has since 1986. Though a State must still turn over information about a specific firearm when a Federal Agency or other State already has that firearm in its possession, when the serial number is tied to a crime, or when a judge orders it. Firearms and firearm components produced by three-dimensional printing or other additive manufacturing are prohibited unless they meet the same licensing, serialization, and detectability standards as any other firearm, and the design files used to make them are restricted the same way. Bump stocks and any other device whose function is to increase a semiautomatic firearm’s rate of fire are prohibited outright, defined by what they do rather than by the mechanical trigger-pull test a 2024 Supreme Court decision used to strike down the federal version of this same ban.
And because several of these provisions cannot coexist with the individual right recognized in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the amendment says so directly: to the extent of any conflict, it supersedes the Second Amendment.
The remainder of the amendment is the machinery that keeps the rest of it from being read out of existence by a hostile court or ignored by a reluctant official: a standard of review that presumes a law implementing this amendment is constitutional while subjecting any law that weakens it to the opposite presumption; a private right of action letting anyone harmed by a violation sue directly; a preemption clause that stops a state from evading the floor this amendment sets while leaving states free to exceed it; an anti-evasion clause closing the door on compliance in name only; broad standing so a challenge does not have to wait for a tragedy to be heard; a rule against courts narrowing this amendment by reference to a right it has already superseded; a bar on cost or inconvenience as a defense; and a right to a real remedy: injunction, damages, and expedited Supreme Court review when it is violated.
IV. Addressing the Objections
“This amendment bans guns.” It does not. Section 26 says so explicitly: an owner who obtains a license, secures their firearm, and carries insurance keeps every right they have today. What changes is not whether a person may own a firearm, but what is required of them while they do, the same bargain this country already strikes with drivers, pilots, and physicians.
“A red-flag order lets the government take my guns without a trial.” It requires more due process than most people assume, and this amendment writes that process into the Constitution rather than leaving it to statute. An emergency order without notice is available only on an affidavit showing immediate danger, and it expires in two weeks unless a court holds a real hearing. Notice, the right to appear, the right to counsel, and a clear-and-convincing evidentiary standard before any extended order can be issued. And even then, it is capped at one year with a built-in path to end it early. This is closer to the process a domestic violence protective order already requires than a unilateral seizure.
“This amendment violates the Second Amendment.” This is the one objection this amendment does not attempt to argue around. The individual right the Supreme Court recognized in Heller and reaffirmed in Bruen, to keep a handgun in the home for self-defense, largely free of licensing and registration burdens is real, and several of this amendment’s provisions, particularly the state authority to prohibit handguns and multi-shot rifles in Section 11, cannot coexist with it as currently interpreted. Rather than draft around that conflict, this amendment confronts it directly in Section 17: to the extent of any conflict, it supersedes the Second Amendment. That is a heavier constitutional lift than anything else in this book proposes, and it should be evaluated with that weight in mind, not folded quietly into a list of routine reforms.
“This creates a national gun registry the government can use against owners.” It does the opposite. Section 14 preserves the same rule federal law has followed since 1986: no national registry, and no requirement that a State hand its own licensing records to Washington. The narrow exceptions: a firearm the Federal government or another State already physically holds, a serial number tied to a crime, a judge’s order, all reach a single named firearm, not a State’s database as a whole.
“Officers need to be able to stop a fleeing vehicle by any means necessary.” The departments that have prohibited shooting at moving vehicles for decades, New York City among the first, did not see officer safety get worse. They saw it improve, because a vehicle with a dead or wounded driver does not stop; it becomes a heavier, faster, less predictable threat than the one the shot was meant to end. This amendment’s narrow exception for an active shooter firing from the vehicle preserves the one scenario where returning fire genuinely protects a life.
“Letting a minor near a firearm at all is reckless.” This amendment does not lower the floor for ownership; it raises one that federal law, remarkably, does not currently set for anything but handguns. What it preserves is what most American families already do safely and lawfully every hunting season and every trip to a supervised range: a minor using an adult’s firearm, under that adult’s direct supervision and consent, with the adult bearing full legal responsibility if anything goes wrong.
“Requiring a trigger lock in the box doesn’t stop anyone determined to misuse a gun.” No single provision in this amendment is meant to. The lock is a floor, not a solution by itself, paired with licensing, storage, insurance, and background checks, it closes a specific and avoidable failure: a firearm changing hands with no safety device included at all. It is the same modest requirement federal law has already applied to handgun dealers, without controversy, for twenty years.
“Requiring an unloaded, locked firearm defeats the purpose of open carry.” This is a fair criticism, and this book does not pretend otherwise. For a person who carries openly for immediate self-defense, an unloaded, locked firearm is not a functional deterrent in the moment it might matter most. This amendment does not touch concealed carry at all, a State remains free to set its own standards there, including whether a concealed firearm may be loaded. But the open-carry rule reflects a considered judgment that a firearm displayed in public, where anyone including a child may be near it, should not also be instantly ready to fire. Reasonable people who carry for self-defense will disagree with that judgment, and they are entitled to.
V. Why This Belongs in the Constitution
Every other amendment in this book adds a right, a protection, an institution, layered onto the existing Constitution without displacing anything already there. This one is different, and honesty requires saying that plainly rather than burying it in Section 17’s text. Firearm violence in the United States is not a policy failure this country has simply neglected to address; it is a policy outcome the current constitutional order, as interpreted by the current Supreme Court, makes extraordinarily difficult to address at the level of licensing, insurance, and sale that every other dangerous, regulable activity in American life is subject to. Security of person, the first and foundational right this book opens with, cannot be fully realized while that gap remains. Closing it is worth the most direct amendment this book proposes.
PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
Article [___] — The Firearms Safety Amendment
Section 1. Definitions. For purposes of this Article:
(a) “Person” means a natural person and, where the context of Section 7 or Section 20 requires, includes a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, insurer, or other legal entity.
(b) “Firearm” means any weapon that will, is designed to, or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or compressed air and includes the frame or receiver of any such weapon.
(c) “Ammunition” means any cartridge, shell, or projectile designed for use in a firearm, and any propellant or primer designed for assembling such a cartridge, shell, or projectile.
(d) “State” means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, and every Commonwealth, territory, and possession of the United States.
(e) “Licensed seller” means a person licensed by a State under Section 7 to sell or transfer firearms.
(f) “Secure storage container” and “biometric locking mechanism” mean, respectively, a container and locking device meeting minimum technical standards established by law sufficient to prevent access by any person other than the license holder without the use of force, tools, or destruction of the container.
(g) “Motor vehicle” means any self-propelled device used for transportation on land, water, or in the air.
(h) “Compelling governmental interest,” “narrowly tailored,” and “least restrictive means” carry the meaning given those terms in federal constitutional adjudication as of the date of this Article’s ratification.
(i) An undefined term in this Article shall be given its ordinary meaning as understood by a reasonable person at the time of this Article’s ratification. No court shall narrow the meaning of a term in this Article by reference to the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States or to case law construing it.
(j) “Additive manufacturing” means a process, including three-dimensional printing, that creates a three-dimensional object by successively adding material, whether metal, polymer, or other substance, based on a digital model.
(k) “Trigger lock” means a mechanical or electronic device that, when engaged, physically blocks or immobilizes the trigger of a firearm, preventing the firearm from being fired.
Section 2. Licensing.
(a) Congress shall establish a national firearm licensing system, administered by the States under uniform federal standards, requiring a background check, completion of a certified safety-training course, and periodic renewal as a condition of legally owning or possessing a firearm.
(b) No person under the age of eighteen may be issued a license under this Section, and no person under the age of eighteen may own a firearm.
(c) Subsection (b) does not prohibit a person under eighteen from: (1) using or firing a firearm made available for rental or instructional use at a licensed shooting range, under the supervision of a range employee or another licensed adult; (2) using a firearm owned by that person's parent or legal guardian, including for hunting in compliance with applicable law, with the prior consent of the parent or guardian and under the parent's or guardian's direct supervision; or (3) participating in a certified firearm safety or marksmanship training course under adult supervision.
(d) A parent or legal guardian who permits a person under eighteen to use a firearm under subsection (c) remains responsible under this Article, and under any other applicable law, for the safe storage, supervision, and lawful use of that firearm, and the firearm remains subject to the storage requirements of Section 4 when not in use under subsection (c).
(e) A person is a “prohibited person,” ineligible for a license under this Section and ineligible to own or possess a firearm under this Article, if that person: (1) has been convicted of a felony, or of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; (2) is subject to an active protective order, issued after notice and an opportunity to be heard, restraining that person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of an intimate partner; (3) has been adjudicated by a court as suffering from a serious mental illness, or has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution; (4) is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, a controlled substance; (5) is subject to an active order issued under Section 3; or (6) is otherwise disqualified on a ground established by law consistent with this Article. Congress shall establish by law a process by which a person no longer subject to a disqualifying condition under this subsection may petition for restoration of eligibility.
Section 3. Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
(a) A State shall establish a process by which a law enforcement officer, a family or household member, or another petitioner authorized by law may petition a court for an order temporarily prohibiting a person from purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm, upon a showing that the person poses a significant danger of causing injury to themselves or others by having access to a firearm.
(b) A court may issue an emergency order under this Section, without prior notice to the respondent, only upon a sworn showing of immediate and present danger. An emergency order shall expire not later than 14 days after issuance unless extended after a hearing that satisfies subsection (c).
(c) An order under this Section that extends beyond the period authorized by subsection (b) shall issue only after notice to the respondent and a hearing at which the respondent has the right to appear, present evidence, and be represented by counsel, and shall be supported by clear and convincing evidence of the significant danger described in subsection (a).
(d) An order issued under subsection (c) shall specify its duration, not to exceed one year, and shall provide a process by which the respondent may petition the court for early termination upon a showing that the danger described in subsection (a) no longer exists.
(e) A person subject to an order under this Section is a prohibited person under Section 2(e) for the duration of that order, and shall surrender any firearm in that person's possession to law enforcement or a licensed seller for safekeeping for the duration of the order, under a process established by law.
(f) A petitioner who knowingly makes a materially false statement in a petition under this Section is subject to penalty as provided by law.
Section 4. Secure Storage.
(a) Every licensed firearm owner shall store each firearm they own in a locked storage container equipped with a biometric locking mechanism to which the license holder has sole access, except as provided in subsection (b).
(b) While a firearm is being carried or used by the license holder, subsection (a) does not apply. While a firearm is in transit for shipping, sale, service, or repair through a method authorized by law, subsection (a) does not apply, but the firearm shall have a trigger lock secured in place for the duration of the transit, rendering the firearm unable to fire.
(c) A storage container required by subsection (a) shall include a secondary access method, a mechanical key, a numeric code, or another non-biometric override sufficient to open the container without the license holder's biometric input. The license holder may lodge the credentials for that secondary access method with a person of the license holder's choosing, an attorney, or a financial institution, for use under Section 8.
(d) A license holder who discovers that a firearm they own has been lost or stolen shall report the loss or theft to a law enforcement agency not later than 5 days after discovering the loss or theft. A good-faith report under this subsection does not itself establish a violation of this Article. Congress shall establish by law the form of the report.
(e) A violation of subsection (a), other than a use permitted under Section 2(c), that results in a person under eighteen obtaining access to a firearm and using it to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person is a separate and aggravated violation of this Section, subject to the penalty provided by Section 10(b)(8), in addition to any other penalty arising from the minor's access to or use of the firearm.
Section 5. Public Carry.
(a) In a State that permits the open carrying of a firearm in public, a firearm carried openly in public shall be unloaded and shall have a trigger lock secured in place, rendering the firearm unable to fire, for as long as it is carried in public.
(b) This Section does not apply to a firearm carried by a law enforcement officer acting in an official capacity.
(c) This Section does not apply to a firearm being transported in compliance with Section 12, or stored in compliance with Section 4.
(d) Nothing in this Section requires a State to permit the open carrying of a firearm, or limits a State's authority to prohibit or further restrict open carry.
(e) This Section does not address, and does not limit, a State's authority to regulate, license, or restrict the concealed carrying of a firearm in public. A State retains full authority to establish its own standards governing concealed carry, including whether a concealed firearm may be carried loaded.
Section 6. Insurance. Every firearm owner shall maintain liability insurance, in a form and minimum amount established by law, covering harm caused by the negligent or unlawful use of a firearm they own.
Section 7. Point of Sale.
(a) No firearm may be sold or transferred, whether new or used, except through a seller licensed under this Section, and a licensed seller shall verify the buyer's license under Section 2 and conduct the background check required by law before completing any sale.
(b) A State shall license, under standards established by law, sellers to conduct sales described in this Section within that State.
(c) An individual who is not a licensed seller and who wishes to sell or transfer a firearm shall do so only through a seller licensed under this Section in the State of that individual's residence, and the licensed seller shall perform the verification and background check required by subsection (a) as though the licensed seller were the seller of record.
(d) A sale or transfer completed in violation of this Section confers no lawful title or right of possession on the transferee.
(e) A licensed seller shall create and retain, for a period established by law, a record of each sale or transfer completed under this Section, including: (1) the buyer's license number issued under Section 2; (2) the licensed seller's own license number; (3) a description of the firearm sufficient to identify its make and model, and its serial number; and (4) the date and time the transaction occurred. Congress shall establish by law the form of these records, the period of retention, and standards for their secure maintenance and production to law enforcement upon lawful request.
(f) Except as provided by law for a licensed collector, instructor, or another category established by law, a licensed seller shall not complete the transfer of a firearm to a buyer until a waiting period, established by law and not less than 72 hours from the time of sale, has elapsed following the background check required by subsection (a).
(g) Except for the waiting period established by subsection (f), the requirements of this Section apply equally to the sale or transfer of ammunition, and a licensed seller shall verify a buyer's license under Section 2 and conduct the background check required by law before completing a sale of ammunition.
(h) A manufacturer, importer, or licensed seller shall include, at no additional cost to the buyer, a trigger lock meeting the standard of Section 1(k), or another secure storage device meeting minimum standards established by law, with every firearm sold or transferred under this Section. A failure to comply with this subsection does not render a sale void under subsection (d).
Section 8. Death or Incapacity of a License Holder.
(a) Upon the death or adjudicated legal incapacity of a license holder, the executor or administrator of the license holder's estate, or a person named by the license holder under Section 4(c), may access a storage container required by Section 4 using the secondary access method lodged under that Section, for the sole purposes of inventorying, securing, and disposing of a firearm under this Section.
(b) A firearm accessed under subsection (a) shall, pending its disposition under this Section, be maintained in secure storage complying with Section 4 by the executor, administrator, or person accessing it, or transferred immediately to a licensed seller under Section 7 for safekeeping.
(c) An heir or devisee of a deceased license holder who is not a prohibited person under Section 2(e) may receive a firearm directly from the estate, without the transaction passing through a licensed seller under Section 7, provided that the heir or devisee obtains a license under Section 2 within a period established by law following the transfer. This subsection does not exempt the heir or devisee from the licensing, storage, and insurance requirements of this Article once the transfer is complete.
(d) An estate, executor, or administrator wishing to sell a firearm rather than transfer it to an heir or devisee under subsection (c) shall do so only through a seller licensed under Section 7, and the proceeds of that sale shall be distributed as part of the estate.
(e) The insurance requirement of Section 6 does not apply to a firearm held under subsection (a) or (b) for a period of 90 days following the license holder's death or adjudicated incapacity, to allow for orderly transfer or sale under this Section.
(f) If an heir or devisee is a prohibited person under Section 2(e), or fails to obtain a license within the period established under subsection (c), the executor or administrator shall transfer the firearm to a licensed seller under Section 7 for sale or other lawful disposition within a period established by law.
Section 9. Firearm and Ammunition Sales Tax.
(a) Congress shall impose an excise tax of fifteen percent on the sale price of every firearm and of every unit of ammunition sold in the United States, whether new or used, the proceeds of which shall be deposited in a Gun Violence Victims Trust Fund established by law to provide compensation, trauma care, and survivor support to victims of firearm violence and their families.
(b) The Fund shall be administered by the Department of Justice through an office designated by law for that purpose, which shall distribute Fund proceeds to States and eligible entities by formula and discretionary grant, consistent with the administrative model of the federal Crime Victims Fund administered by the Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime.
(c) The Director of the office designated under subsection (b) shall be appointed in the manner established by law, shall serve a fixed term, and may be removed only for cause. The office shall issue an annual public accounting of the Fund's receipts and disbursements.
Section 10. Penalties.
(a) Congress shall establish civil and criminal penalties for violation of this Article as provided in this Section, of sufficient severity to ensure meaningful compliance.
(b) The following are federal felony offenses, punishable by imprisonment of not less than one year, in addition to any fine established by law:
(1) selling or transferring a firearm without a license required by Section 7;
(2) knowingly selling or transferring a firearm to a person not verified as licensed under Section 2, in violation of Section 7;
(3) manufacture, sale, or distribution of a firearm or firearm component in violation of Section 15;
(4) manufacture, sale, or distribution of a device prohibited by Section 16;
(5) a second or subsequent violation of the licensing requirement of Section 2;
(6) possession of a firearm by a person who is a prohibited person under Section 2(e), regardless of whether that person previously held a license under this Article;
(7) knowingly purchasing, acquiring, or attempting to acquire a firearm on behalf of, or for subsequent transfer to, a person the purchaser knows or reasonably should know is a prohibited person under Section 2(e), or knowingly making a false statement to a licensed seller regarding the identity of the true buyer of a firearm; and
(8) a violation described in Section 4(e).
(c) The following are civil violations, subject to a fine established by law: a first violation of the licensing requirement of Section 2; a lapse in the insurance coverage required by Section 6; a failure to secure a trigger lock as required by Section 4(b); a failure to report a lost or stolen firearm as required by Section 4(d); a failure to comply with the public carry requirements of Section 5; a failure to maintain the transaction records required by Section 7(e); a failure to comply with the waiting period established by Section 7(f); a failure to include a trigger lock or secure storage device as required by Section 7(h); a failure to comply with the requirements governing death or incapacity of a license holder under Section 8; and a failure to comply with the transit requirements of Section 12. Congress may, in its discretion, establish criminal penalties for a repeated or willful violation described in this subsection.
(d) A penalty established under this Section shall not be so nominal, or so rarely enforced, as to fail the standard of review established by Section 18.
Section 11. State Authority to Restrict Firearm Types. Nothing in this Article limits the authority of a State to prohibit the sale or possession within its borders of a handgun or of a rifle other than a single-shot rifle. Any firearm whose sale or possession a State does not prohibit remains subject to the licensing, storage, insurance, sale, and taxation requirements of this Article.
Section 12. Interstate and Interstate-Commercial Transit.
(a) Notwithstanding a State's authority under Section 11 to prohibit possession of a class of firearm within its borders, a person may transport a firearm and its ammunition by motor vehicle through that State without violating that State's prohibition, if:
(1) the firearm is lawfully possessed by that person at the place of origin and at the intended destination of the transit;
(2) the firearm is unloaded; and
(3) if the vehicle has a separate trunk, the firearm is secured in that trunk with a trigger lock engaged; or, if the vehicle has no separate trunk, the firearm is secured in a locked container, with a trigger lock engaged.
(b) The protection of subsection (a) is not lost by a stop reasonably necessary for fuel, food, rest, vehicle repair, or a medical emergency. The protection of subsection (a) is lost from the time a person begins an overnight stay, or any other stop not reasonably necessary to the transit, until the person resumes transit in compliance with subsection (a).
(c) A firearm and its ammunition transported by aircraft, train, or bus in interstate commerce shall be unloaded, secured in a locked, hard-sided container, and carried only in a cargo or baggage compartment inaccessible to a passenger during the course of the trip, and declared to the carrier as required by the carrier's own procedures. This subsection does not require a private carrier to accept a firearm for carriage.
(d) A State, or a political subdivision of a State, shall not arrest, detain beyond the time reasonably necessary to verify compliance with this Section, or prosecute a person for a firearm transported in apparent compliance with subsection (a) or (c). A lawful stop for a reason unrelated to this Section does not itself justify extending that stop beyond the time reasonably necessary to verify such compliance.
Section 13. Restriction on Firing at Vehicles.
(a) No person, including a law enforcement officer acting in an official capacity, shall discharge a firearm into or at a motor vehicle, whether occupied or unoccupied and whether moving or stationary, except as provided in subsection (b).
(b) A law enforcement officer may discharge a firearm into or at a motor vehicle when necessary to:
(1) save the life of a hostage being held in that vehicle; or
(2) stop an active shooter who is discharging, or has just discharged, a firearm at the officer or another person from within, from beside, or in the immediate vicinity of that vehicle, where the officer reasonably believes that discharging a firearm at the vehicle is necessary to stop an imminent threat to life.
Section 14. State Records; Federal Compliance.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a State is not required to share firearm licensing or ownership records maintained under this Article with the federal government.
(b) A State shall provide information regarding a specific firearm to a requesting federal or State law enforcement agency, or to a court, when:
(1) the federal government or a State has physical possession or custody of that firearm;
(2) the serial number of that firearm has been identified as connected to a crime under federal law or to a crime committed in a State other than the State maintaining the record; or
(3) a judge of competent jurisdiction orders disclosure of information regarding that specific firearm in connection with a pending investigation or proceeding.
(c) Disclosure under subsection (b) is limited to information regarding the specific firearm identified in the request or order and does not authorize the bulk or database-wide transfer of a State's firearm licensing or ownership records.
(d) Nothing in this Section excuses a State, a licensed seller, or a firearm owner from complying with any other applicable federal law.
Section 15. Prohibition on Undetectable and Untraceable Firearms.
(a) No person shall manufacture, possess, sell, transfer, or distribute a firearm or firearm component produced, in whole or in part, by three-dimensional printing or other additive manufacturing process, unless the firearm or component (1) is manufactured by a seller or manufacturer licensed under this Article, (2) bears a serial number permanently affixed in a manner that cannot be removed without rendering the firearm inoperable, and (3) satisfies the detectability standards of the Undetectable Firearms Act, as in effect on the date of this Article's ratification or as subsequently strengthened by law.
(b) No person shall create, possess, sell, distribute, or transmit a digital file, computer-aided design file, or other digital or software instructions the primary purpose of which is to enable the manufacture of a firearm or firearm component prohibited by subsection (a), except for purposes of law enforcement, licensed manufacturing under this Article, or bona fide research conducted under standards established by law.
(c) A firearm or firearm component manufactured, and a digital file distributed, in violation of this Section is subject to seizure and forfeiture without compensation.
Section 16. Prohibition on Rate-of-Fire Enhancement Devices.
(a) No person shall manufacture, possess, sell, transfer, or distribute a bump stock, trigger crank, forced-reset trigger, or other device the principal function of which is to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm, regardless of whether the device causes the firearm to fire more than one shot by a single function of the trigger.
(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) does not depend on, and shall not be limited by, the statutory definition of “machinegun” in any federal law, as that definition has been construed by a court prior to the ratification of this Article.
(c) A device described in subsection (a) is contraband and subject to seizure and forfeiture without compensation, subject to a surrender period of not less than 180 days established by law following ratification of this Article.
Section 17. Relationship to the Second Amendment. To the extent of any conflict, this Article supersedes the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Section 18. Standard of Review.
(a) A law, regulation, or governmental policy enacted or applied to implement, enforce, or strengthen a requirement of this Article shall be presumed constitutional and reviewed under rational basis review. A court shall sustain such a law, regulation, or policy if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest in reducing firearm violence, and administrative convenience in implementation shall itself constitute such an interest.
(b) A law, regulation, governmental policy, or judicial decision that narrows, delays, conditions, exempts any person or class of persons from, or otherwise weakens a requirement established by this Article shall be subject to strict scrutiny. The party defending such a law, regulation, policy, or decision bears the burden of demonstrating that it is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest and that no less restrictive alternative would leave the requirements of this Article intact. Administrative convenience, generalized cost concerns, or resource limitations shall not constitute a compelling governmental interest sufficient to satisfy this subsection.
(c) No court shall apply an interest-balancing test, an undue-burden standard, or any standard of review other than those specified in subsections (a) and (b) to a law, regulation, or governmental policy implicating this Article.
Section 19. Enforcement and Private Right of Action.
(a) The Attorney General of the United States, the attorney general of any State, and any person aggrieved by a violation of this Article have a cause of action in federal district court to enforce this Article.
(b) A person aggrieved by a violation of this Article, including a person injured by a firearm sold, stored, or possessed in violation of this Article, is entitled to injunctive relief, compensatory damages, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
(c) An action under this Section may be brought without regard to the amount in controversy and is not subject to any requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies.
Section 20. Preemption and Supremacy.
(a) This Article, and any law or regulation enacted to implement, enforce, or strengthen its requirements, preempts and supersedes any conflicting federal, State, or local law, regulation, or policy.
(b) Nothing in this Section limits the authority preserved to the States under Section 11 to adopt requirements more protective of public safety than those established by this Article. This Section preempts only a law, regulation, or policy that would narrow, delay, or exempt any person from a requirement established by this Article.
Section 21. Anti-Evasion. No government, licensed seller, insurer, or other person or entity subject to this Article shall accomplish indirectly through delay, administrative practice, licensing denial without cause, informal policy, or any other means what this Article prohibits directly, nor decline to perform an act this Article requires through the same indirect means.
Section 22. Standing and Justiciability.
(a) Any person subject to, or reasonably likely to become subject to, a requirement or prohibition of this Article has standing to seek a declaratory judgment as to its meaning or application, without waiting for an enforcement action to be initiated against that person.
(b) Any resident of a State has standing to challenge that State's failure to implement or enforce a requirement of this Article, regardless of whether that resident has personally suffered a firearm-related injury.
(c) No claim arising under this Article shall be dismissed for lack of ripeness solely because no enforcement action has yet been initiated, nor for mootness solely because the specific conduct challenged has ceased, if the challenged conduct is capable of repetition.
Section 23. Interpretive Rule. This Article shall be interpreted consistent with its text and the public meaning of that text at the time of this Article's ratification. No court shall diminish a requirement of this Article by reference to evolving standards, contemporary policy preferences, or the text, history, or tradition of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as construed prior to this Article's ratification, including District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022).
Section 24. Limitation on Defenses. In an action to enforce this Article, cost of compliance, business inconvenience, administrative burden, claimed unfamiliarity with this Article's requirements, and invocation of a right under the Second Amendment superseded by Section 17 shall not constitute a defense to a violation of this Article.
Section 25. Remedies.
(a) A court with jurisdiction over an action arising under this Article may grant a preliminary or permanent injunction, compensatory and punitive damages, declaratory relief, and any other relief the court deems appropriate to secure compliance with this Article.
(b) Congress shall by law establish a process for expedited judicial review of a substantial constitutional challenge to this Article or to a law enacted to implement it, providing for direct appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States on a schedule set by law.
Section 26. Savings Clause and Severability.
(a) Nothing in this Article shall be construed to prohibit the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm by an individual who satisfies the licensing, storage, and insurance requirements established under this Article.
(b) If any provision of this Article, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this Article, and the application of that provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected.
