Prohibited Persons: Who May Not Possess a Firearm

Who does federal law bar from having a firearm?

One federal statute carries the list. It makes it unlawful for a person in any of the following situations to ship, transport, receive or possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate commerce, which in practice means almost any firearm:

• Convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.
• A fugitive from justice.
• An unlawful user of, or addicted to, a controlled substance.
• Adjudicated as mentally incompetent, or committed to a mental institution.
• Present in the country unlawfully, or admitted on most nonimmigrant visas.
• Discharged from the armed forces under dishonorable conditions.
• Having renounced United States citizenship.
• Subject to a qualifying court order restraining harassment or threats against an intimate partner or child.
• Convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

A separate provision covers people under indictment for a felony. That status blocks shipping, transporting or receiving a firearm while the case is pending, but it does not by itself make continued possession of a firearm already owned unlawful. The distinction matters to defendants who are told, wrongly, that an indictment requires them to surrender everything.

The same statute reaches ammunition, which surprises people who divested their firearms and kept a box of cartridges in a garage. It also reaches possession that is momentary or shared: holding a friend's rifle at a range, or keeping a firearm in a jointly used vehicle, is possession for these purposes even though nobody bought anything.

Categories in this list have been litigated heavily in the federal courts of appeals, and how a category applies to a particular person can differ between circuits. That is a reason to read the statute and the law of your own circuit rather than a general summary before acting on the edge of a category.

Which convictions count, and which quietly do not?

The federal test is the maximum possible sentence, not the sentence you received. A crime punishable by more than one year counts even if you served no time at all, and a crime punishable by exactly one year does not, which is why the answer often turns on a state's sentencing statute rather than on how serious the offense sounds.

Two carve-outs shrink the category. Federal antitrust, unfair trade and similar business offenses are excluded. So are state misdemeanors punishable by two years or less, even though those exceed the one-year line. The second exclusion sweeps in a large number of state offenses that people assume are disqualifying.

Relief written into the definition matters just as much. A conviction that has been expunged, set aside, pardoned, or for which civil rights have been restored is not counted, unless the relief document expressly says firearm rights are not restored. Whether your state's process produces that effect is the whole question in getting firearm rights back after a conviction, and the wording of the order does the work.

How do protective orders and domestic violence cases work?

A restraining order disqualifies only if it meets specific conditions: it was issued after notice and an actual hearing you had a chance to attend, it restrains you from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner or that partner's child, and it either finds you a credible threat or expressly forbids force. An emergency order granted without a hearing generally does not meet the federal test, though state law may still require surrender.

The misdemeanor domestic violence bar is different and far more durable. It applies to a misdemeanor conviction with an element of force or a threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed against a spouse, a cohabitant, a co-parent, a person similarly situated, or a current or former dating partner. The bar is permanent for most qualifying convictions. Convictions involving a dating partner rather than a household member carry a narrow route out after a set period with no further violent or stalking offenses.

Orders issued under a state extreme risk statute work on a separate track and rest on state law rather than the federal list. How those are obtained, contested and ended is covered in the explanation of extreme risk protection orders.

Does drug use or a mental health history disqualify you?

Unlawful drug use is judged under federal law, which still classifies marijuana as a controlled substance regardless of what a state has legalized. A state medical or recreational card does not create an exception, and the purchase form asks the question directly. Federal enforcement policy varies, but the legal position on the form does not.

The mental health category is narrower than people expect. Voluntary treatment, therapy, a prescription, or a hospital stay you agreed to does not disqualify anyone. The bar attaches to a formal adjudication that a person lacks the capacity to manage their own affairs or is a danger to themselves or others, or to an involuntary commitment ordered by a court or another lawful authority.

Both categories are also the most common source of stale records. An adjudication that was later reversed, or a commitment that was ordered and then vacated, can still sit in a database and stop a sale years later. That is a records problem rather than a legal bar, and it is fixed through the same channels described in what to do when a background check is delayed or denied.

What do states add on top of the federal list?

The federal list is a minimum. States legislate their own categories, and where a state bar is broader it governs anyone in that state, including visitors. Common state additions look like this:

A few states run their own licensing systems that function as a second gate. Where a state requires a card or permit simply to possess or to buy, losing that card for an administrative reason produces the same practical result as a statutory bar, even though nothing about your criminal record changed.

States also differ on what a bar reaches. Some prohibit purchase but not continued possession of a firearm owned beforehand, some require surrender within a stated period, and some bar carry while leaving home possession alone. Reading the actual state statute is unavoidable, because none of this is uniform.

What happens if a prohibited person has a firearm anyway?

Possession by a prohibited person is a federal felony with serious prison exposure, and it is charged on the fact of possession. No intent to misuse the firearm is required, and the government does not have to show you knew the law, only that you knew you belonged to the category. State charges frequently run alongside the federal ones.

The exposure spreads outward. Selling or giving a firearm to someone you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, is prohibited is a separate federal offense for the transferor. Buying a firearm on a prohibited person's behalf is a straw purchase, prosecuted as a false statement and as unlawful trafficking. These charges reach relatives and friends who thought they were doing a favor, which is why the rules for handing a firearm to another person privately deserve reading before any transfer.

If you think you are prohibited, there is no lawful workaround, and no route exists that lets a prohibited person acquire a firearm while the bar stands. The only lawful sequence is to divest lawfully, usually by transferring through a licensed dealer to a qualified buyer or surrendering as a court directs, and then to pursue whatever relief your state or the federal system actually offers. A lawyer is worth the cost at the point where the answer depends on how a specific old conviction is classified, because that classification decides everything else.