Federal firearm law in plain English.

Federal law lists nine categories of people who may not possess firearms or ammunition. In summary:

• Anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison (with an important carve-out: state misdemeanors punishable by two years or less do not count, per 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20));
• Fugitives from justice;
• Unlawful users of, or those addicted to, controlled substances;
• People adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution;
• People unlawfully present in the United States;
• People dishonorably discharged from the armed forces;
• People who have renounced U.S. citizenship;
• People subject to certain domestic-violence restraining orders; and
• People convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

This is not a small population. DOJ's own rulemaking estimated roughly 20 million adults are affected — well over a million of them by long-past, non-violent felony convictions.

A prohibited person may apply to the Attorney General for relief if they can show they "will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety" and that relief "would not be contrary to the public interest."

From 1992 until 2025, a congressional appropriations rider barred ATF from processing individual applications. The remedy existed on paper but was dead in practice. In March 2025, DOJ withdrew ATF's authority and returned the program to the Attorney General ( see 90 Fed. Reg. 13,080), reviving it.

A grant of 925(c) relief lifts the federal firearm prohibition. In some states, receiving this federal restoration of rights also operates to restore state rights. But in many states, it does not. Some clients need both federal relief and a parallel state process. We can help sort out which apply.