New York assault weapons ban circumvented with simple modification

The Safe Act was billed as the nation's toughest, but a surprisingly easy loophole makes the weapons legal to sell

One month after the Newtown school shootings, the governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, signed into law a ban on the sale of assault weapons, hailing it the "nation's toughest".

The Safe Act, signed in January 2013, introduced stricter background checks while banning high-capacity magazines and so-called assault weapons like the AR-15-style gun Adam Lanza used to kill 27 people in Newtown in December 2012.

But while pro-gun campaigners continue to argue that the law is too strict – and are due to protest outside New York's statehouse in Albany on Tuesday – gunmakers, gun shops and gun owners have found a remarkably simple way to make their assault weapons legal.

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