The NY SAFE Act has not been repealed. More than a decade after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it on January 15, 2013, the law remains in effect with its core provisions intact, and every serious effort to undo it has failed. Repeal bills in Albany have never cleared both chambers, a federal preemption bill is sitting in committee, and the courts have so far upheld the law’s central restrictions. With Democrats controlling the state legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul actively expanding New York’s gun regulations, a state-level repeal is not on the table. The only realistic paths left run through Washington or the federal courts, and neither is close to delivering.
Why State Repeal Keeps Failing
Multiple bills to repeal the SAFE Act have been introduced in the New York State Legislature. None have advanced to a vote in both chambers.
The most prominent recent effort came in February 2017, when State Senator Rob Ortt of North Tonawanda proposed legislation that would repeal the law everywhere in New York except the five boroughs of New York City. Ortt argued that the state already treats New York City differently for policies like minimum wage and ride-sharing regulation, and that the same logic should apply to firearms.1New York State Senate. New Law Would Repeal SAFE Act Upstate NY, Everywhere but NYC The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association backed the bill and helped shape its amendments.2Spectrum News. SAFE Act Upstate Repeal
Ortt himself called the effort an “uphill battle” and a way to “put a marker down” and “continue the conversation.”3BTPM. Ortt Seeking Repeal of SAFE Act Upstate Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, called the bill a “non-starter,” arguing that background checks and SAFE Act protections should apply statewide.2Spectrum News. SAFE Act Upstate Repeal Ortt said at the time he was involved with eight other repeal-related bills. None moved.
The political math has only gotten worse for repeal supporters since. Democrats continue to control both chambers of the legislature, and the governor’s office has become one of the law’s most aggressive defenders rather than a potential ally for rollback.
The Federal Route: The SAGA Act
Unable to repeal the SAFE Act in Albany, some New York Republicans have turned to Congress. On January 13, 2025, U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney reintroduced the Second Amendment Guarantee Act, known as the SAGA Act, as H.R. 373 in the 119th Congress.4U.S. Congress. H.R. 373 – Second Amendment Guarantee Act Co-sponsors include Representatives Doug LaMalfa of California and Nick Langworthy of New York.5Rep. Claudia Tenney. Congresswoman Tenney Introduces Second Amendment Guarantee Act
The bill would not repeal the SAFE Act directly. Instead, it would preempt it by prohibiting states and localities from imposing any regulation on rifles or shotguns more restrictive than federal law. The bill’s definition of “rifle or shotgun” explicitly includes parts, detachable magazines, ammunition feeding devices, pistol grips, and stock designs, sweeping in most of the features the SAFE Act’s assault weapons ban targets.6U.S. Congress. H.R. 373 – Text It also lets successful plaintiffs recover attorney’s fees in suits over violations of the preemption.
H.R. 373 was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary on January 13, 2025, and has remained there without further action. Even under Republican control in Washington, analysts have noted that the bill faces significant obstacles. If it did pass, New York would almost certainly sue immediately and seek an injunction before it could take effect.7Spectrum News. Tenney Sponsors SAGA Act
The Courts After Bruen
The constitutional attack on the SAFE Act has not succeeded either, though the ground has shifted. The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association sued shortly after the law’s enactment. On December 31, 2013, Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny issued a 54-page ruling that upheld the law’s core and struck down only three narrower pieces.8The New York Times. Federal Judge Upholds Majority of New York Gun Law On October 19, 2015, the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed, applying intermediate scrutiny and finding that bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines were “substantially related to the achievement of an important government interest” in public safety.9Brennan Center for Justice. Don’t Expect Supreme Court to Overturn Assault Weapon Bans The Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 20, 2016.
That intermediate-scrutiny framework is now gone. In 2022, the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, striking down New York’s “proper cause” concealed carry standard and rejecting the two-step balancing test lower courts had used. Under Bruen, any gun regulation must be justified as “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”10Supreme Court of the United States. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen
That change creates a real opening for a new challenge, because the Second Circuit’s 2015 reasoning rested on the very approach Bruen rejected. Whether the SAFE Act’s assault weapons ban can survive the historical-tradition test is an open question. So far, no court has struck it down.
Signals from other circuits are mixed. In 2023, the Seventh Circuit upheld Illinois’s assault weapons ban in Bevis v. City of Naperville, reasoning that AR-15-style rifles fall outside Second Amendment protection because of their military characteristics.11Everytown for Gun Safety. Bevis v. City of Naperville: What You Need to Know The Supreme Court denied certiorari in related cases in July 2024, but Justice Thomas wrote that the Seventh Circuit’s reasoning was “unmoored from both text and history” and signaled the Court should take up the issue once final judgments are reached.12Cornell Law Institute. Harrel v. Raoul As of late 2025, more petitions involving assault weapons and large-capacity magazine bans from multiple circuits remain pending.13Duke Center for Firearms Law. SCOTUS Gun Watch: Week of 9/9/25
Second Circuit decisions on New York’s post-Bruen Concealed Carry Improvement Act are also shaping how the court applies the historical-tradition test. In December 2023, the panel upheld most of the CCIA, including its “good moral character” licensing standard and most “sensitive places” restrictions, while striking down a requirement that applicants disclose social media accounts.14Courthouse News Service. Second Circuit Upholds Bulk of New York Concealed Carry Law In May 2026, the Second Circuit ruled the CCIA’s ban on carrying firearms on private property open to the public was unconstitutional, while upholding the restriction in public parks.15U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Christian v. James Those rulings concern a different statute, but they are the clearest read currently available on how the Second Circuit treats New York’s gun laws under the new standard.
What’s Already Been Struck Down (and What That Doesn’t Mean)
If you’ve read that parts of the SAFE Act have been invalidated, that is true, but the pieces that fell are narrow. Judge Skretny’s 2013 ruling struck down three provisions:
- The seven-round loading limit, which the court called “an arbitrary restriction” unrelated to public safety and noted had the “perverse effect” of disadvantaging law-abiding citizens against criminals who would ignore it.16Rockefeller Institute of Government. NY State Rifle and Pistol Ass’n v. Cuomo Analysis
- The term “muzzle breaks,” thrown out as unconstitutionally vague because it is not a recognized firearm feature.
- A ban on pistols described as “semiautomatic versions of an automatic rifle, shotgun or firearm,” struck down for failing to give fair warning of what was prohibited.
Everything central to the law survived. The expanded assault weapons ban still stands. The ten-round magazine capacity limit still stands. The universal background check requirement still stands. Mental health reporting, ammunition sales restrictions, five-year license recertification, and the safe storage rule all remain in force.17Schuyler County NY. Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act One ambitious provision, the ammunition background check and sales-tracking database, sat unimplemented for years after 2013 for lack of infrastructure, but the state eventually launched the system on September 13, 2023, with a $2.50 fee for ammunition checks and $9 for firearm checks.18Spectrum News. New NYSP System Will Include Ammunition Background Checks and Fees A delayed provision is not a repealed one.
Why Albany Is Moving the Opposite Direction
Any realistic path to state repeal would require the political wind to shift. It has been doing the opposite. Governor Hochul has signed multiple rounds of new firearms legislation since taking office in 2021. In June 2022, she signed a ten-bill package to close gun law loopholes following the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings.19Office of the Governor of New York. Gun Safety NY In April 2025, she signed three more bills categorizing pistol auto-sears as prohibited rapid-fire modification devices, strengthening merchant category code tracking for firearms retailers, and expanding the suicide prevention and safety information that gun dealers must distribute at the point of sale.20Office of the Governor of New York. Governor Hochul Signs Legislation Strengthening New York’s Gun Safety Laws
Her 2026 State of the State agenda added new proposals targeting 3D-printed firearms and ghost guns, along with a proposed $370 million gun violence prevention investment for the fiscal year. Her administration cites more than $1.27 billion in such investments since 2021 and state figures showing statewide shootings down 60% in 2025 compared to 2021.21Office of the Governor of New York. Governor Hochul Announces Nation-Leading Proposals to Crack Down on 3D-Printed Firearms
For anyone tracking repeal, the practical picture is this. Albany will not do it under current conditions. Congress has a vehicle in the SAGA Act, but the bill is parked in committee and would face immediate litigation if it ever passed. The courts offer the most plausible route after Bruen, and the Supreme Court has signaled interest in the assault weapons question, but no challenge has yet toppled the SAFE Act’s core, and the Second Circuit has not revisited its 2015 holding under the new historical-tradition framework.