Penal Law § 240.78

Making a threat of mass harm · as in force on May 31, 2026

§ 240.78 Making a threat of mass harm.

1. A person is guilty of making a threat of mass harm when with the intent to intimidate a group of people or to create public alarm, such person threatens to inflict or cause to be inflicted, serious physical injury or death at a school, place of worship, business, government building, or other place of assembly, and thereby causes a reasonable expectation or fear of serious physical injury or death, or causes the evacuation or lockdown of a school, place of worship, business, government building, or other place of assembly.

2. It shall be no defense to a prosecution pursuant to this section that the defendant did not have the intent or capability of committing the conduct threatened.

Making a threat of mass harm is a class B misdemeanor.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/240.78

In plain English

(1) Threatening serious physical injury or death at a school, place of worship, business, government building, or other gathering place, with intent to intimidate a group or alarm the public, is a threat of mass harm when it creates reasonable fear or expectation of such harm or causes an evacuation or lockdown. ★
(2) Lack of intent or ability to carry out the threat is not a defense.

The offense is a class B misdemeanor.

Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.

In print

This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.