Less Guns, More Drugs, seems to be the motto leading into 2025, lets take a look at the big changes coming in the next year for firearm enthusiasts.
Americans will wake up on Wednesday with new resolutions, new calendars and, in many states, new laws.
Here’s a look at some of them.
Gun Laws
A law goes into effect on Jan. 1 in Minnesota that bans “binary triggers,” devices that allow firearms to fire one shot when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released. The law also bans forced reset triggers, which can make semiautomatic firearms shoot at nearly fully automatic speed. The law was passed after a man in Burnsville, Minn., killed a paramedic and two police officers in February; the man had recently acquired a weapon that with a binary trigger, the authorities said.
A number of states already ban binary triggers and other conversion kits, like bump stocks, that allow firearms to fire at the rate of machine guns. It is unclear how effective a ban might be. Hobbyists frequently use the small but often expensive devices with AR-15-style rifles. Their small size and ease of installation make it difficult to ban the devices outright.
Kentucky joins more than a dozen states enacting NRA-backed legislation
The NRA touted that several states have passed laws to prohibit assigning a code for gun retailers, known as a “merchant category code.” The MCCs can be used by financial institutions to see what kinds of purchases are made, though it does not show the specific item purchased.
Kentucky is one of 10 states that passed an MCC ban in 2024, according to the NRA, and at least five other states have previously passed those laws while a handful of other states, including California, have passed legislation requiring it.
Kentucky’s ban goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of laws aimed at strengthening gun safety regulations. Those include requiring schools to implement safety programs and plans, and establishing an Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which have deadlines in the coming years.
Some of those laws go into effect on Jan. 1 including:
- AB 1483 strengthens a rule against applying for more than one handgun in a 30-day period. The bill removes an exemption for a private party transactions. However, the policy has been caught in court battles and the California Department of Justice does will not enforce it while a court injunction is in place, the California DOJ told USA TODAY on Dec. 27.
- AB 1598 requires firearm dealers to provide consumers with a pamphlet covering the reasons for and risks of firearm ownership, “including the increased risk of death to someone in the household by suicide, homicide, or unintentional injury.”
- AB 2917 guides courts to expand considerations for a gun violence restraining order to include threats of violence, specifically hate-based threats.
In Delaware, a new law makes it a crime to possess weapons on the campuses of colleges and universities, adding them to the state’s school safe zones. Many states, including California and New York, already ban firearms on college campuses in most circumstances. Most states that do not have an explicit ban allow individual colleges to decide whether or not to allow guns on campus.
Colorado requires secure storage in a vehicle, training for concealed carry
As of Jan. 1, any handgun stored inside an unoccupied vehicle in Colorado must be in a locked, hard-sided container that is out of plain view, and the vehicle also must be locked, with some exceptions.
Later in 2025, Coloradans who want to apply for a concealed carry permit will be required to complete an eight-hour training class, which includes a written exam and a live-fire exercise. The law, which goes into effect July 1, also prohibits anyone who was convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses from obtaining a concealed carry permit, if those offenses happened within five years of the application.
New Hampshire’s new year laws bolster gun rights
The only gun-related bills signed into law in 2024 in New Hampshire expanded gun rights. Going into effect on Jan, 1. HB 1186 strengthens privacy protections around gun laws by prohibiting the use of specific merchant category codes, and HB 1336 bars employers from forbidding employees from storing guns in locked vehicles. SB 322, which already went into effect in July, protects law enforcement officers who issue gun licenses “in good faith.”
In New York, firearms retailers will have to post warnings at their stores, beginning later in January, stating that having guns increases “the risk of suicide, death during domestic disputes and/or unintentional death to children.” The warning is similar to one that is required at California gun stores.
Marijuana
In 2025, Nebraska will join 38 other states that have legal medical marijuana programs, following the approval of a ballot measure voters passed in November. The measure allows Nebraskans to acquire up to five ounces of cannabis if they get a written recommendation from a health care professional.
And in Kentucky, medical marijuana patients will be able to start purchasing products at dispensaries in the state under a program state legislators passed in 2023.
But measures seeking to legalize recreational marijuana failed in 2024 in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota. In Massachusetts, residents voted down an initiative that sought to allow the therapeutic use of certain psychedelics.
In Texas, voters in Dallas approved an initiative that decriminalized possessing up to four ounces of cannabis. The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, a Republican, is suing the city in an effort to invalidate the measure.