Trump DOJ Reviving Gun Restoration Program for Convicted Felons

Sioux City, Iowa, resident Terry Strawn says hunting where he lives is tradition. Except it’s one he can’t participate in with a firearm—due to a 1994 felony conviction on charges of methamphetamine trafficking and unlawful possession of gun by a drug user.

Strawn, 64, who runs a construction company, is subject to a federal law barring convicted felons from access to guns. But he could potentially benefit from a Trump administration plan to revive a long-dormant program that allows people with felony convictions and other past offenses, such as domestic violence misdemeanors, to apply to regain their firearm rights.

The Justice Department said in a budget proposal that it started developing a restoration process and is creating an “easy-to-use web portal” that accepts applications in a way that maximizes technological “efficiencies” and minimizes “manual review.”

Gun rights proponents have cheered the move, arguing federal prohibitions are overbroad, while Democratic lawmakers say the administration is violating a ban on funds for the program and ignoring a gun violence epidemic.

The program could ignite a “mad rush” by those affected, which DOJ estimates to be in the millions, said Margaret Love, an attorney specializing in clemency. Love aided Strawn in his unsuccessful effort to get a presidential pardon in part to regain his firearms access.

Many applicants will still be “saddled” by state-level restrictions, even if the DOJ restores their federal rights, said Love, who authored a report highlighting the different gun restoration rules across the US.

The DOJ hasn’t provided many details about how it would assess applications and allocate resources as it institutes wide-scale budget cuts to its law-enforcement components.

“The devil is in the details—and this budget proposal is short on those,” said Thomas Chittum, a former associate director at the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The law establishing a right to relief offers “only vague criteria and assessing future dangerousness is challenging.”

The DOJ said the Office of Pardon Attorney, a 32-person unit now led by Trump ally Ed Martin, is leading the initiative and that it wants an additional $448,000 for the office to support the development of an electronic management system.

The DOJ didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mel Gibson

Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer first disclosed the DOJ’s efforts after saying in March that she was fired for refusing to recommend that actor Mel Gibson regain his right to own firearms following a domestic violence conviction.

The DOJ subsequently published an interim final rule in March withdrawing a “delegation of authority” that gave ATF responsibility for administering the gun rights restoration program.

ATF gained that responsibility under a gun control law enacted by Congress in the 1960s. The measure gave the attorney general the ability to restore gun rights if factors, including a person’s record, showed they “will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.”

Lawmakers in the early 1990s barred ATF from using earmarked funds to administer the program. That step occurred after a report by the Violence Policy Center, which advocates for gun control, showed the program was resource intensive and that many of the people who got their firearm rights back had been convicted of violent crimes.

“The idea that DOJ is not only reviving the program but planning to accept applications from millions of convicted felons through an ‘easy to use’ web portal is deeply disturbing and obviously dangerous,” said VPC executive director Josh Sugarmann.

‘Shot at Relief’

In publishing the interim rule, the DOJ said that it would ensure “violent or dangerous individuals remain disabled from lawfully acquiring firearms” and that its approach may be “refined through future rulemaking.”

In late April, the department published its first notice in the federal register documenting 10 people it restored gun rights for, including Gibson. The notice included no details on’ offenses and the process used.

Stephen Stamboulieh, an attorney for the Gun Owners of America, which supports the program’s revival, said he’s already in talks with people interested in getting their gun rights restored. He’s also he’s sent applications directly to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office as he waits for more information on the program.

“I will file as many as I think have a good shot at relief,” Stamboulieh said, calling the program one that “gives non-violent people a second chance.”

Democrats including Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois claim department leaders are circumventing congressional authority by pushing to renew the program through the DOJ. They have called on the department to stop considering applications.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun violence prevention group, also said in a June 18 comment on the interim final rule that a relief process would “inevitably” risk “putting guns back in dangerous hands.”

Supreme Court Risk

The administration’s push to revive the program comes as it works to roll back Biden-era gun control rules as part of what it’s called a “pro gun agenda.”

But it also comes after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling expanding Second Amendment protections, which has engendered an increase in constitutional challenges to federal prohibitions as applied to certain convicted felons.

A renewal of the relief program could serve to strengthen defenses of the felon gun ban, said Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres, citing justices who have indicated a concern the law doesn’t leave room for individualized determinations of violence.

“It may save lives,” said Ayres. “Those categorical prohibitions are at risk of being struck down by the Supreme Court.”

Even so, key questions exist over how the DOJ will analyze requests, said Duke University law professor Joseph Blocher. “This might not be as partisan political as some other moves that one might make with respect to guns,” he said. “Now, that’s obviously gonna depend on who gets the benefit of this program.”

Everytown for Gun Safety is backed by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.