Federal Gun Rights Restoration: Who Can Apply on Nov. 4

For the first time in more than 30 years, people who lost their federal firearm rights can formally ask the Department of Justice to restore them. The general-public window opens November 4, and only the first 5,000 applications will be accepted. Here’s who can apply, what it costs, and what the rule requires.

Gun Talk Media Staff — October 26, 2026

What Happened

The Department of Justice published its Federal Firearm Rights Restoration rule on August 20, 2026. It revives a process that has been effectively dead since 1992, when Congress began blocking ATF from spending money on applications under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c). The program has moved from ATF to the DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney, with Pardon Attorney Edward Martin overseeing it. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the rule, saying the Second Amendment “is not a second-class right” and calling the rule “a rigorous, common-sense process that protects the public.”

Relief is not automatic. You have to apply, wait out the required period, and show you’re not a danger.

The rollout

The $30 fee can be waived or reduced, including for economic hardship. The fee was not charged during the invitation period, and DOJ’s schedule starts it at the 120-day mark, not at the public opening.

Who Can Apply

Anyone barred from possessing firearms under federal law can apply, including under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). But the rule sets up tiers based on the offense, and some applicants start with a heavy presumption against them.

Where the rule is most likely to help

The intended beneficiaries are people with older, nonviolent convictions who have lived a law-abiding life since. DOJ will look for evidence of rehabilitation, community ties, stable employment and the time that has passed. For most other felonies and specified misdemeanors, the presumptive waiting period is five years.

The harder cases

• 10-year presumption: drug trafficking, certain firearm and ammunition offenses, threats of violence and other listed high-risk conduct. You have to wait and make a showing that overcomes the presumption. DOJ excluded marijuana from its drug-related presumption of ineligibility.
• Permanent presumption: listed violent felonies, including offenses that caused a death, sexual offenses, kidnapping, robbery, arson and terrorism. The rule’s full list is longer, so read it before assuming. You can still apply, but the burden is very high and an extraordinary-circumstances mechanism applies.
• Presumptively ineligible: violent felons, registered sex offenders, people unlawfully present in the United States, and anyone showing an ongoing danger to public safety. The rule doesn’t put these groups permanently out of reach, but it sets a heavy burden to overcome.

What DOJ Evaluates

For every application, DOJ applies two standards. The applicant must not be likely to endanger public safety, and granting relief must not be contrary to the public interest. The factors include the nature and circumstances of the offense, the time elapsed, conduct since conviction, rehabilitation, community standing, work and education history, and character references.

The application asks for electronic fingerprints, court and sentencing records, state criminal-history reports and three sworn character references. Each reference must have known you for at least three years. The full list is on the DOJ site.

The Legal History

Section 925(c) goes back to the Gun Control Act of 1968. It lets a prohibited person petition for relief from federal firearms disabilities, a power the Attorney General holds and for decades delegated to ATF. In 1992, Congress added a rider to ATF’s appropriations bill barring the agency from spending money to process these applications. The statute stayed on the books, but the program stopped working for individuals. In 2002, the Supreme Court held in United States v. Bean that without an ATF decision there was nothing for a court to review, which left applicants with nowhere to go.

DOJ’s move to the Office of the Pardon Attorney is the structural change that brought the program back. In March 2025 DOJ issued an interim final rule withdrawing the ATF delegation, and it published a proposed rule that July. The final rule drew more than 15,500 public comments.

Will it last?

This is a regulation, not a statute. It depends on continued funding and on how the Department uses its discretion under the rule, and a future administration could change it. The program also doesn’t settle the broader constitutional debate over how Bruen applies to the federal prohibitions. It creates an administrative path while those questions are still being sorted out in court.

Before November 4: What to Do

1. Confirm your disqualifying offense. Not every conviction triggers a federal firearms disability.
2. Work out your waiting period. Five or ten years from the date every part of your sentence was completed, including restitution.
3. Collect your records. Court judgments, sentencing orders, restitution records and your state and federal criminal-history reports.
4. Line up three character references who have known you at least three years, and document your rehabilitation: employment, housing, education, community ties.
5. Watch justice.gov/ffrr. The application form was marked “coming soon” when we checked, and with only 5,000 slots in this window, you want to be ready the day it goes live.
6. Talk to a firearms attorney who knows § 922(g) and § 925(c) before you use one of the slots.
7. Check your state law. Federal restoration doesn’t override it.

Also This Week: Fifth Circuit Strikes Part of the Switchblade Act

On October 21, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Blanche, No. 25-10754, that a core provision of the Federal Switchblade Act of 1958 violates the Second Amendment. Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Don Willett and Cory Wilson. The court held that switchblades are “arms” in common use, and that the government cited no historical analogue for the Act’s ban on introducing, transporting or distributing them in interstate commerce, 15 U.S.C. § 1242. We have not seen an announcement on whether the government will seek further review.

Sources & Further Reading

• Federal Firearm Rights Restoration (U.S. Department of Justice)
• DOJ Finalizes Rule Restoring Federal Firearms Rights for Convicted Individuals (Williams Mullen)
• DOJ Revives Federal Firearm Rights Restoration After 30-Year Shutdown (AmmoLand)
• DOJ Reopens Federal Gun Rights Restoration After 34 Years (Gun Talk)
• Switchblade Ban Violates Second Amendment, Fifth Circuit Holds (Reason / Volokh Conspiracy)