Americans will wake up on Wednesday with new resolutions, new calendars and, in many states, new laws.
From marijuana and guns to pornography and social media, a host of laws are taking effect on Jan. 1.
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.
In many cases, those who are intent on installing conversion kits find workarounds or simply ignore the law. Still, such bans, while hard to enforce, can increase the severity of charges when a crime is committed.
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.
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.
Crime
A series of laws in California will increase penalties for people who are repeatedly convicted of shoplifting, breaking into cars or other robberies. One of those bills allows the authorities to add up the value of property stolen from multiple victims or across different counties. That makes it easier for prosecutors to charge someone with felony grand theft, which requires that $950 worth of goods be stolen.
In Illinois, a new law requires the state’s police training board to create autism-informed training programs. Those training sessions will be required for all law enforcement officers and for part-time corrections officers. In recent years, several police shootings of people with autism have led to calls for more training in how to respond to people with developmental disabilities.
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.
Health
Insulin could be cheaper for many in New York in the new year, when a measure takes effect eliminating co-pays for insulin covered by health insurance plans. New York is the first state to eliminate co-pays for insulin, which the state’s governor said could save residents $14 million in 2025.
Also in New York, employers must offer pregnant employees at least 20 hours of paid time off for pregnancy-related appointments.
Education and Children
Children younger than 14 will be banned from making a social media account in Florida under a new law that is already being challenged in court. The law also requires that 14- and 15-year-olds who want to make a social media account get a parent’s permission.
The law is intended to protect children from the harmful effects of social media, but there is an ongoing challenge to the law in court, and Florida’s attorney general has said the state will not immediately enforce the law in the new year.
Florida also passed a law to become the latest state to require age verification for pornographic websites. That led Pornhub, one of the most-visited pornographic websites, to warn that it would block Floridians from accessing the site rather than collect information about visitors to verify their ages. The website has taken a similar tack in other states that have implemented age-verification requirements.
In California, school districts will no longer be able to require teachers or staff to disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to the student’s parents. The new law is an effort to push back on school districts that had issued policies mandating employees to notify parents if a student began using different pronouns or identifying as a different gender.
Under a new law in Ohio, transgender students will in many cases not be able to use the bathroom of their choice. The new law requires schools to make all multiple-person bathrooms for the “exclusive use” of “students of the male biological sex only or by students of the female biological sex only.” The law also bans schools from creating a non-gender-specific bathroom if it is for use by multiple people.
Cash, Wages and Cars
The minimum wage is rising in 21 states on Jan. 1, with an estimated 9.2 million workers getting a mandated raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group.
The average full-time workers in the states raising their minimum wage will make $420 more than they would have in 2024, the group said. Dozens of cities are also raising their own minimum wage, with Tukwila, Wash., a Seattle suburb, topping the list: The new minimum wage there will be $21.10 an hour, the highest in the nation.
Stores in Washington, D.C., will be required to accept cash — meaning they can’t only make credit card sales — in the new year under a local law that was years in the making. The law was passed in 2020 but will go into effect on Jan. 1. The D.C. Council has exempted bars and other kinds of businesses that serve alcohol from the requirement.
Texas will no longer require owners of personal vehicles to get their cars inspected. Several counties in the state will still require car owners to get an emissions test. The state joins at least a dozen others that do not require safety inspections, according to Kelley Blue Book, the car valuation company.
The post The States Restricting Guns and Legalizing Marijuana in the New Year appeared first on New York Times.
