Penal Law § 240.78 · Article 240. Offenses Against Public Order
Making a threat of mass harm
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 240.78 Making a threat of mass harm.
1. A person is guilty of making a threat of mass harm when with the intent to intimidate a group of people or to create public alarm, such person threatens to inflict or cause to be inflicted, serious physical injury or death at a school, place of worship, business, government building, or other place of assembly, and thereby causes a reasonable expectation or fear of serious physical injury or death, or causes the evacuation or lockdown of a school, place of worship, business, government building, or other place of assembly.
2. It shall be no defense to a prosecution pursuant to this section that the defendant did not have the intent or capability of committing the conduct threatened.
Making a threat of mass harm is a class B misdemeanor.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN240.78
- Text hash
- sha256 8258a827aed1629325f97cb501d8c7f5bb90b2b6a45bcea9a025a3df04486ad1
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.