California
Legal with Restrictions
California’s BSIS guidance says unlicensed individuals may not purchase, possess, or use a tear-gas weapon that expels a projectile; civilians are limited to aerosol spray meeting the statutory size limit.
Connecticut
Legal with Restrictions
Connecticut’s dangerous-weapons law treats BB guns / similar dangerous weapons as regulated for carry without a permit, which makes public carry of launcher-style projectile devices a legal-review state
Delaware
Legal with Restrictions
Delaware now defines a “projectile weapon” separately and makes clear that a projectile weapon is a deadly weapon; current law also restricts possession by prohibited persons and generally treats projectile weapons as a regulated category.
Massachusetts
Legal with Restrictions
Massachusetts expressly regulates self-defense spray and says a person under 18 needs a self-defense spray permit; the statute covers pepper spray and similar propelled liquid, gas, or powder. That is not a clean authorization for pepper-ball launchers, so Massachusetts is a legal-review state for projectile products.
New York
Legal with Restrictions
New York’s official regulations recognize “self-defense spray devices” under 10 NYCRR Part 54, which is the state’s approved framework for pepper spray devices. That official framework is for self-defense spray devices, not pepper projectiles launched from a CO2 marker-style platform, so New York is a legal-review state for pepper projectile launchers.
Washington, DC
Legal with Restrictions
D.C. expressly allows self-defense spray only when it is propelled from an aerosol container, which is a poor fit for pepper projectile launchers
Alaska
UNVERIFIED — needs primary-source confirmation before publishing. Public sources conflict: general "pepper gun" guides describe pepper spray and spray-based pepper guns as legal in Alaska, but a major CO2 pepper-launcher retailer (Byrna) lists Alaska as a state it will not ship pepper launchers OR kinetic (non-chemical) launchers to. This is a legal-review priority state — the conflict likely traces to spray-based "pepper guns" being treated differently than true CO2 projectile launchers, but that has not been confirmed against Alaska statute.
Vermont
UNVERIFIED — needs primary-source confirmation before publishing. No retailer-level restriction found for Vermont (unlike Alaska), and general self-defense-device law there is permissive — pepper spray and stun guns are both legal with no permit and no size/concentration restrictions. No statute specifically addressing CO2 pepper-ball/projectile launchers was located in this research pass. Treat as likely legal but unconfirmed for the projectile-specific case.
Virginia
UNVERIFIED — needs primary-source confirmation before publishing. General sources describe pepper spray and "pepper guns" as legal for self-defense in Virginia, but that framing appears to describe aerosol spray devices with pistol-grip housings, not CO2 ball/projectile launchers specifically. No projectile-specific statute was located in this research pass — the aerosol-vs-launcher distinction (the same one flagged for California, New York, and Massachusetts) has not been confirmed for Virginia.