What's happening
This bill allows individuals to voluntarily waive their right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns, with a process for revocation and confidentiality protections.
Why it matters
Empowers individuals concerned about their own safety or mental health. (such as those at risk of self-harm or suicide) to proactively block themselves from purchasing firearms, potentially preventing impulsive acts.
Ensures a clear and reversible process. by allowing individuals to revoke their waiver, but only after a 21-day waiting period, adding a safeguard against hasty decisions while still preserving personal agency.
Protects privacy and prevents discrimination. by keeping all waiver and revocation records confidential, ensuring that such decisions cannot be used against individuals in contexts like employment, housing, insurance, or government benefits.
Integrates with background check systems. so that waivers are quickly reflected in state and federal databases used to screen firearm purchasers, making the voluntary prohibition effective in real-world gun sales.
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Who cares
New York State Police
The division would verify identities, maintain confidential waiver records, enter waivers into purchaser-screening systems within 24 hours and remove waiver-based prohibitions 21 days after receiving a revocation.
Individuals seeking to restrict their own gun purchases
They could voluntarily bar themselves from buying firearms, rifles or shotguns, with a 21-day waiting period to reverse that restriction.
Firearms dealers
Their purchaser-screening systems would flag individuals who voluntarily waive their right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns.
Employers and benefits or service providers
They could not require individuals to file a waiver as a condition of receiving employment, benefits or services.
Headline styles
Let People Opt Out of Guns
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 27
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to codes
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 44–16
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.842
- Referred to finance
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to codes
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 47–15
Show 5 earlier actions
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- Amended 1026a
- 1st report cal.1039
- Referred to finance
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Let People Waive Gun Rights
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Amy Paulin
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1026--A Cal. No. 1039
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sens. KAVANAGH, FAHY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance -reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first report, amended on first report, ordered to a second report and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of second report
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 221-e to read as follows:
§ 221-e. Voluntary waiver of right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns. 1. An individual may file a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase a firearm, rifle or shotgun with the division of state police, in a manner that shall be determined by the superintendent. Such individual shall then be prohibited from purchasing firearms, rifles and shotguns. The division of state police shall verify the individual's identity prior to accepting such form. The individual filing the waiver may provide an additional individual to be contacted if the waiver is revoked as set forth in subdivision three of this section.
2. The division of state police shall maintain statewide records of individuals who waive the right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns as set forth in subdivision one of this section and revocations of such waivers as set forth in subdivision three of this section. Such records shall be maintained for internal use in a manner determined by the superintendent. The division of state police shall enter each waiver into the New York state national instant criminal background check system and any other state computer-based systems used by law enforcement agencies or others to identify prohibited purchasers of firearms, rifles and shotguns within twenty-four hours of receipt of the waiver.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01026-03-5
3. An individual may file a revocation of the waiver with the division of state police in a form that shall be determined by the superintendent. The division of state police shall verify the individual's identity prior to accepting such revocation. Twenty-one days after receiving the revocation, the division of state police shall remove the individual from the New York state national instant criminal background check system and any other state computer-based systems used by law enforcement agencies or others to identify prohibited purchasers of firearms, rifles and shotguns, to indicate that the individual is no longer a prohibited purchaser of firearms, rifles or shotguns due to the voluntary waiver.
4. A waiver pursuant to this section may not be required of an individual as a condition for receiving employment, benefits or services.
5. No records required by this section shall be subject to disclosure and shall be confidential with respect to all matters involving health care, employment, education, housing, insurance, government benefits, and contracting.
6. Any information about an individual that is contained in, or transmitted to, the division of state police shall not be used for any purpose other than to determine the eligibility of the individual to receive a firearm.
7. Any person who knowingly makes a false statement or representation regarding such person's identity when submitting a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase a firearm, rifle or shotgun shall be guilty of offering a false instrument for filing in the second degree, as defined by section 175.30 of the penal law.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing a volun- tary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill would allow individuals to waive their right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns and require the state police to enter such waivers into the national criminal background check system.
Summary of provisions
Section one of the bill amends the executive law by adding section 221-e to allow individuals to waive their right to purchase firearms, rifles and shotguns, as well as a process by which the waiver can be filed and revoked. This section requires the state police to maintain statewide records of those individuals who have chosen to waive their right to own a firearm, rifle, and shotgun as well as report the information to the New York national criminal background check system. This section also sets forth privacy protections for such records.
Read the full memo (616 words)
Section two of the bill sets forth the effective date.
Justification
The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed widespread uncertainty. The world has been upended, and there is so much despair. Gun violence has increased, with frequent shootings recounted in New York and around the country. Reported suicides, which were already on the rise according to the Centers for Disease Control, and have accounted for two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States, have been increasing in the current environment. According to the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, "while firearms are used in less than 10 percent of all suicide attempts, they account for more than half of all suicide deaths."
Recently in The Wall Street Journal, Frederick Vars and Ian Ayres advo- cated a legislative solution in "Suicide Accounts for Most Gun Deaths. A Libertarian Approach Could Help." Their plan is straightforward: to create a mechanism that allows people to voluntarily give up their right to purchase guns, but also to provide the individuals the ability to revoke that decision at a later time if they so choose. Washington and Virginia have recently enacted legislation, and nine other States, including Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, have introduced simi- lar bills in the legislatures. Vars and Ayres have conducted research and published numerous articles supporting this proposal, including a survey where 46 percent of 200 psychiatric patients in Alabama indicated that they would waive their rights given the opportunity.
A system that allows individuals to voluntarily waive their rights to purchase firearms, rifles and shotguns can have an impact on all these sobering statistics. Essentially, it is allowing people to create a self-imposed pause, similar to a waiting period. This bill allows some- one who recognizes their own vulnerability to elect willingly, voluntar- ily and confidentially to waive their right, and then revoke the volun- tary.waiver after twenty-one days. This has the potential to save lives. We are in a pandemic that has seen millions of Americans suffering in a myriad of ways. New York State should enact this bill to allow people the opportunity to voluntarily take steps to protect themselves from themselves. Creating an option for people to ban themselves from purchasing firearms, rifles and shotguns has the potential to save them from hurting themselves and from hurting others.
Prior legislative history
2024: S2086A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-PASSED SENATE /A565A (Paulin) - referred to
2023: S2086A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-REFERRED TO FINANCE /A565A (Paulin) - referred to
2022: S5814A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-REFERRED TO FINANCE /A1033A (Paulin) - referred to
2021: S5814A (Kavanagh) - REFERRED TO FINANCE /A1033A (Paulin) - referred to governmental operations
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.