DOJ Publishes New Gun Rights Restoration Program Proposal – Update for July 22, 2025

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

SPEAKING OF GUNS, AS WE ARE…

The Dept of Justice last Friday released the long-awaited proposed rules for convicted felons and other disqualified people to win restoration of their gun rights.

In March, the DOJ restored gun rights to a handful of people disqualified by 18 USC § 922(g), most famously actor and Trump supporter Mel Gibson, disqualified under 18 USC § 922(g)(9) for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction over a decade ago. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ would be crafting a program for people covered by § 922(g) to apply for restoration of gun rights under its authority to do so granted by 18 USC § 925(c).

The DOJ’s 48-page notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) outlines the history of firearms rights restoration, the legal authority,  the policy rationale for such a program, the offenders the rule will exclude, and how applicants will be evaluated.

“For too long, countless Americans with criminal histories have been permanently disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms—a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion—irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat,” Bondi said in a press release. “No longer.”

The proposed rule holds that people who were fugitives from justice (§ 922(g)(2)), unlawful drug users (§ 922(g)(2)), people subject to domestic violence restraining orders (§ 922(g)(8)), and illegal immigrants (§ 922(g)(5)) would be “presumptively ineligible for relief and therefore denied relief absent extraordinary circumstances.” The proposed rule also lists individual violent felony offenses, sex crimes, and other crimes “closely associated with dangerousness,” such as threatening or stalking offenses, that would be grounds for presumptive denial.

The rule would provide that people with certain offenses, which are “less serious or indicative of violence,” can have their presumption of denial mitigated by the passage of time since the offense occurred. The proposal says that for some crimes, like drug-distribution or misdemeanor domestic violence, that “bear a more direct relationship to violence,” DOJ will consider applicants without a presumption of denial only after ten years have passed following completion of probation, parole, or supervised release period. All non-violent offenders would be required to wait five years after completing their punishment before DOJ will process their applications.

The rule states that the DOJ will reject a narrow “categorical approach” that examines only the disqualifying conviction. Instead, it will review the applicant’s history and characteristics, including his or her entire criminal history, non-charged conduct, known associations, and inquiries to local law enforcement.

The NPRM makes it fairly clear that a prime motivator for the rights restoration program is to give the Government an argument that deciding that courts need not decide the constitutionality of 18 USC § 922(g)(1) because an alternative gun rights restoration is in place: “As recognized by courts, a functional section 925(c) process would render much of this litigation unnecessary and ensure that individuals meeting the relevant criteria may possess firearms under federal law in a manner consistent with the Second Amendment, while still protecting public safety.”

Written comments are due October 20, 2025.

This is nothing more than an administrative band-aid. If someone like Melynda Vincent, whose 15-year-old bank fraud conviction should not have disqualified her from gun ownership under the Second Amendment, was never constitutionally stripped of her right to own a gun, then a government argument that she is entitled to jump through a protracted application hoop to win back Second Amendment rights she never lost is specious.

DOJ, Application for Relief from Disabilities Imposed by Federal Laws with Respect to the Acquisition, Receipt, Transfer, Shipment, Transportation, or Possession of Firearms (90 FR 34394, July 18, 2025)

DOJ, Justice Department Publishes Proposed Rule to Grant Relief to Certain Individuals Precluded from Possessing Firearms (July 18, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root