Innovate to De-Escalate Modernization Act

Key Points

• Congress would create a new legal category for “less-than-lethal projectile devices,” meant to cover certain low-power launchers.
• To qualify, a device must not be designed (or easily converted) to fire regular gun ammo, and it can’t shoot a projectile faster than 500 feet per second.
• It also must be intended to be unlikely to cause death or serious injury, and it can’t use certain magazine-style feeding systems common in semiautomatic guns.
• People and companies could ask the Attorney General to decide if a specific device qualifies, and the Attorney General would have to answer within 90 days.
• If a device qualifies, it would be treated differently under federal firearms restrictions, which could make it easier to sell or own compared with regulated firearms.