Penal Law § 400.20 · Article 400. Licensing and Other Provisions Relating to Firearms
Waiting period in connection with the sale or transfer of a rifle or shotgun
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 400.20 Waiting period in connection with the sale or transfer of a rifle or shotgun.
When a national instant criminal background check is required pursuant to state or federal law to be conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) or its successor in connection with the sale or transfer of a rifle or shotgun to any person, before delivering a rifle or shotgun to such person, either (a) NICS has issued a "proceed" response to the seller or transferor, or (b) thirty calendar days shall have elapsed since the date the seller or transferor contacted NICS to initiate a national instant criminal background check and NICS has not notified the seller or transferor that the transfer of the rifle or shotgun to such person should be denied.
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/PEN400.20
- Text hash
- sha256 18b79082273370be23331be05491573117bc8dfea205ea88bbe9efb53efb68ce
- 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.