Assembly Announces Enacted Budget Includes Provisions to Protect New Yorkers from 3D Printed Ghost Guns

Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal today announced the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2026-2027 Enacted Budget includes provisions that enhance public safety and safeguard New Yorkers from three-dimensional (3D) printed firearms, or ghost guns.

“These provisions included in the budget are critical to keeping our communities safe from gun violence,” said Speaker Heastie. “New Yorkers should not have to live in fear because anyone with a 3D printer can obtain an illegal firearm. We will continue working to protect New Yorkers from the scourge of gun violence.”

“No person should be able to print deadly, unserialized weapons from their kitchen table, but the plastic pipeline has allowed any person with a 3D printer the ability to do just that,” said Assemblymember Rosenthal. “I am proud that my legislation banning the manufacture of 3D guns and the proliferation of the digital files used to create them was included as part of our final New York State budget, and I thank Speaker Heastie for working to ensure it was included. New York’s strong gun laws have kept our communities safe and this law will prevent more bad actors from getting their hands on dangerous homemade firearms.”

The provisions included in the budget prohibit the use of 3D printers for manufacturing ghost guns, silencers, magazines or other firearm parts. It also prohibits the sale and distribution of digital instructions to build these devices. Additionally, these provisions require the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, Department of State and State University of New York to convene a working group along with industry experts to determine the technological feasibility of “blocking technology” for 3D printers, which would prevent them from producing printed firearms or illegal firearm parts. If this blocking technology is determined to be technologically feasible, all 3D printers sold in New York would be required to include it.

The presence of ghost guns in our communities is a rapidly growing trend, especially in New York City. In 2018, only 17 ghost guns were seized by the New York Police Department (NYPD), whereas in 2022, that number was 365. Additionally, nearly half of all untraceable firearms recovered in 2022 were ghost guns, and the NYPD reported a 75 percent increase in the seizure of ghost guns between 2021 and 2022.