DOJ Opens Path for Felons to Regain Guns

Attorney General Todd Blanche finalized a Justice Department rule Monday that lets people barred from owning firearms because of criminal convictions apply to get their federal gun rights back.

The rule moves the review out of the ATF's hands and puts it with the attorney general — reviving a restoration process Congress created but has kept defunded since the 1990s.

The Justice Department expects 330,000 people to apply in the program's first year. It is the latest step by the Trump administration to loosen federal firearms restrictions, PBS NewsHour reported.

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Restoration is neither automatic nor guaranteed, the DOJ said. Each applicant must satisfy the attorney general that his record, reputation and later conduct show he is not likely to act dangerously and that relief would not run against the public interest.

Absent extraordinary circumstances, violent felons, registered sex offenders, illegal immigrants and others the department deems an ongoing danger stay presumptively ineligible.

Some offenses carry a presumptive denial for a fixed term. A disqualification tied to marijuana use carries no presumption of denial; a disqualification for other drug use carries a five-year presumption, according to Bearing Arms' reading of the rule.

Any relief lifts only federal firearms disabilities. It does not override separate restrictions imposed by state law.