§134-8  Ownership, etc., of automatic firearms, silencers, etc., prohibited; penalties.  (a)  The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of any of the following shall be prohibited:  assault pistols, except as provided by section 134-4(e); automatic firearms; rifles with barrel lengths less than sixteen inches; ghost guns; shotguns with barrel lengths less than eighteen inches; cannons; mufflers, silencers, or devices for deadening or muffling the sound of discharged firearms; hand grenades, dynamite, blasting caps, bombs, or bombshells, or other explosives; or any type of ammunition or any projectile component thereof coated with teflon or any other similar coating designed primarily to enhance its capability to penetrate metal or pierce protective armor; and any type of ammunition or any projectile component thereof designed or intended to explode or segment upon impact with its target.

     (b)  Any person who installs, removes, or alters a firearm part with the intent to convert the firearm to an automatic firearm shall be deemed to have manufactured an automatic firearm in violation of subsection (a).

     (c)  The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of detachable ammunition magazines with a capacity in excess of ten rounds that are designed for or capable of use with a pistol shall be prohibited.  This subsection shall not apply to magazines originally designed to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition that have been modified to accept no more than ten rounds and that are not capable of being readily restored to a capacity of more than ten rounds.

     (d)  Any person violating subsection (a) or (b) shall be guilty of a class C felony and shall be imprisoned for a term of five years without probation.  Any person violating subsection (c) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor except when a detachable magazine prohibited under this section is possessed while inserted into a pistol in which case the person shall be guilty of a class C felony.

     (e)  In any prosecution for the manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of a ghost gun, it shall be an affirmative defense that the person holds a current license to sell and manufacture firearms for sale under section 134-31, or that the person is a dealer licensed by the United States Department of Justice, or that the firearm is not required to have a serial number under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968. [L 1988, c 275, pt of §2; am L 1989, c 261, §6 and c 263, §4; am L 1992, c 286, §§3, 4; am L 2025, c 18, §3]

Case Notes

  Trial court is mandated to sentence defendant to a term of imprisonment without any suspension of the sentence.  69 H. 458, 746 P.2d 976 (1987).

  Section not unconstitutionally vague or overbroad on its face or as applied to defendant for "possession of a bomb".  87 H. 71, 951 P.2d 934 (1998).