18 U.S.C. § 922(g): Prohibited Persons, Penalties, and Restoration

Federal law identifies nine groups of people who cannot legally possess a firearm or ammunition anywhere in the United States. A federal prohibited person under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is someone who falls into one of those nine categories: a person convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, a fugitive from justice, an unlawful drug user, someone adjudicated mentally incompetent or involuntarily committed, an unauthorized immigrant, most nonimmigrant visa holders, a veteran discharged under dishonorable conditions, a person who has renounced U.S. citizenship, someone subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order, or a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.¹ The ban applies regardless of any state or local law that would allow possession, and a violation carries up to 15 years in federal prison.

Felony Convictions

The largest category covers anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison. The word “punishable” is doing the work. What counts is the maximum sentence the offense could have carried, not the sentence a judge actually handed down. Someone who received probation for a crime that could have sent them to prison for two years is still a prohibited person.¹

Violence is not part of the test. A tax fraud conviction disqualifies a person the same way an armed robbery conviction does. Two narrow carve-outs exist: state-classified misdemeanors punishable by two years or less do not count, and neither do federal or state offenses related to antitrust violations or business regulation.² Outside those exceptions, the prohibition is permanent unless it is affirmatively lifted through a pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights.

Fugitives From Justice

Subsection (g)(2) covers fugitives from justice. The statute does not define the term. It generally reaches people who have fled a jurisdiction to avoid prosecution or to avoid giving testimony in a criminal proceeding.¹

Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Convictions

A misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence triggers the same lifetime firearm ban that a felony does. The provision, added in 1996 and often called the Lautenberg Amendment, applies even when the underlying charge is not a felony.¹ To qualify, the offense must have involved the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, and the offender must have had a specific relationship with the victim.²

Qualifying relationships originally covered spouses, former spouses, parents of a shared child, and people who lived together. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 added current and recent former dating partners.³ A “dating relationship” means a continuing serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature, judged by factors like length, nature, and frequency of interaction. A casual acquaintanceship is not enough.

The dating-partner expansion carries a sunset the older categories do not have. A first-time offender whose conviction involved a dating partner rather than a spouse or cohabitant can have the firearm disability lifted after five years, provided the person has completed any sentence, has no subsequent qualifying convictions, and has not committed another violent misdemeanor.² A second dating-partner conviction makes the ban permanent.

A conviction does not count for federal purposes unless the person had counsel or knowingly waived that right, and, where a jury trial was available, had or knowingly waived a jury as well.²

Domestic Violence Restraining Orders

Subsection (g)(8) is the one temporary prohibition in the statute. It lasts only as long as the qualifying order remains in effect, but while it lasts, violating it carries the same criminal penalties as any other § 922(g) offense.¹

Not every restraining order triggers the ban. Three requirements have to be met. The person must have received actual notice of the hearing and an opportunity to participate, so an ex parte emergency order issued without notice does not qualify on its own. The order must restrain the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or the child of an intimate partner. And the order must either include a finding that the person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of the partner or child, or must explicitly prohibit the use or threatened use of physical force against them.⁴

For this subsection, “intimate partner” means a spouse, former spouse, someone who shares a child with the person, or someone who cohabitates or has cohabitated with the person. In June 2024, the Supreme Court upheld this provision 8–1 in United States v. Rahimi, holding that temporarily disarming someone found by a court to pose a credible threat to an intimate partner is consistent with the Second Amendment and the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.⁴

Unlawful Drug Users

Anyone who is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, a controlled substance is prohibited from possessing firearms.¹ A January 2026 ATF rule clarified that “unlawful user” means someone who uses a controlled substance regularly over an extended period continuing into the present, without a lawful prescription.⁵ Isolated or sporadic use is not enough. The ATF removed earlier guidance that had inferred current use from a single arrest, conviction, or positive drug test within the past year, finding those single-incident inferences inconsistent with court decisions.

Marijuana is the messiest scenario. In April 2026, the DEA issued a final rule rescheduling FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana held under a state medical license to Schedule III.⁶ Unlicensed marijuana, including recreational marijuana in states where it is legal, remains Schedule I. Because § 922(g)(3) covers any controlled substance regardless of scheduling, even rescheduled marijuana is still a controlled substance. Whether use of state-licensed medical marijuana with a valid card counts as “unlawful use” under the new framework has not been definitively resolved.

Mental Health Adjudications

A person who has been formally adjudicated as mentally incompetent or involuntarily committed to a mental institution cannot possess firearms.¹ “Adjudicated” is the operative word. A private diagnosis does not trigger the ban. Neither does voluntary treatment or voluntary admission to a mental health facility. There must be a formal legal finding, typically by a court, board, or commission, that the person is a danger to themselves or others or lacks the mental capacity to manage their own affairs.

Immigration Status

Two immigration-related categories appear in § 922(g). Anyone in the United States without legal authorization is prohibited. So is anyone who entered on a nonimmigrant visa, such as a tourist or student visa.¹

The nonimmigrant visa ban has several exceptions at § 922(y)(2). A nonimmigrant who holds a valid state-issued hunting license can possess firearms for sporting purposes. Other exceptions cover accredited foreign government representatives, foreign officials designated by the State Department, and foreign law enforcement officers in the country on official business. The Attorney General can also grant individual waivers.⁷

Dishonorable Discharge and Renounced Citizenship

A person discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions is prohibited under subsection (g)(6). This applies specifically to a dishonorable discharge. It does not reach a general discharge under honorable conditions, a bad conduct discharge from a special court-martial, or an administrative separation. Under subsection (g)(7), anyone who has renounced U.S. citizenship is also permanently barred.¹

What Counts as Possession

The ban reaches further than most people expect. A prohibited person may not ship or transport a firearm or ammunition in interstate or foreign commerce, possess one in or affecting interstate commerce, or receive one that has crossed state lines.¹ Nearly every commercially made firearm and every round of factory ammunition has moved through interstate commerce at some point, which gives federal prosecutors jurisdiction in almost every case.

You do not have to be holding the gun. Federal courts apply a doctrine called constructive possession: if you knowingly have both the ability and the intention to exercise control over a firearm, you possess it under § 922(g), even if it belongs to someone else. This comes up often when a prohibited person lives in a household where a spouse or roommate owns guns. If the weapon sits in an unlocked closet or a shared nightstand, a prosecutor can argue the prohibited person had the power to access it and knew it was there.

“Ammunition” includes not only loaded cartridges but also cartridge cases, primers, bullets, and propellant powder designed for use in a firearm.² A box of loose primers in the garage is enough to violate the law.

The Antique Firearm Exception

One meaningful carve-out exists. The Gun Control Act’s definition of “firearm” excludes antique firearms, and prohibited persons may lawfully possess them.⁸ An antique firearm is one manufactured in or before 1898, a replica that does not fire modern fixed ammunition, or a muzzle-loading weapon designed for black powder that cannot accept fixed ammunition.² A muzzle-loader that can be readily converted to fire fixed ammunition by swapping barrels does not qualify. A prohibited person may possess up to 50 pounds of black powder for use in a genuine antique firearm for sporting or recreational purposes. State law may still prohibit what federal law allows, so check the rules in your state before relying on this exception.

Penalties

A violation of § 922(g) is a federal felony. Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(8), the maximum sentence is 15 years in prison, a fine, or both.⁹ The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 raised the ceiling from the previous 10-year maximum. The fine can reach $250,000 for an individual under the general federal fine statute.¹⁰ Most sentences also include supervised release after prison.

Penalties escalate sharply under the Armed Career Criminal Act. A person who violates § 922(g) and has three or more prior convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense, committed on separate occasions, faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years with no possibility of probation.⁹ A “violent felony” includes any crime punishable by more than a year that involves the use or threatened use of physical force, plus burglary, arson, extortion, and offenses involving explosives. A “serious drug offense” means a drug trafficking crime punishable by 10 or more years. There is no time limit on how old the priors can be.

Restoring Firearm Rights

The federal ban tied to a felony conviction is generally permanent, but relief is possible. Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), a person is no longer considered “convicted” for firearm purposes if the conviction has been expunged or set aside, or if the person has been pardoned or had civil rights restored.⁸ There is a catch. If the pardon, expungement, or rights restoration expressly states that the person may not possess firearms, the federal disability stays in place.

For state convictions, restoration depends on whether the convicting state offers a process to restore gun rights and whether that process actually removes the federal disability. Because states handle pardons, expungements, and civil rights restoration differently, the ATF advises contacting the attorney general’s office in both your state of residence and the state where the conviction occurred. The same restoration logic applies to a domestic violence misdemeanor conviction: a pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights removes the federal disability unless it expressly preserves the firearm restriction.²

Federal law also contains a standalone relief-from-disabilities program at 18 U.S.C. § 925(c). It would allow the Attorney General to grant individual exemptions. In practice, Congress attached a rider to ATF’s appropriations beginning in 1992 that blocked the agency from spending money to process these applications. In 2025, the Attorney General withdrew the delegation of authority from ATF and announced that the Department of Justice would handle the program directly, bypassing the appropriations restriction.¹¹ As of mid-2026, a proposed rule has been published but the application process is not yet accepting submissions.¹²

Challenging a Background Check Denial

If you are denied through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, you have the right to learn the reason and to challenge the decision. The FBI must provide the specific prohibiting category within five business days of receiving your request.¹³

If the denial was wrong, whether because of a records error, mistaken identity, or a conviction that has been expunged, you can submit a formal challenge electronically through the FBI’s edo.cjis.gov portal or by mail. The FBI must respond within 60 calendar days with a decision to sustain the denial, overturn it, or advise that the challenge remains unresolved. Submitting fingerprints is not required but is strongly recommended, especially with a common name. If the denial is sustained, the FBI will identify the agency holding the prohibiting record so you can dispute its accuracy directly.

People who face repeated false denials because of name confusion can apply for the FBI’s Voluntary Appeal File. After submitting an application with fingerprints, you receive a Unique Personal Identification Number to enter on the ATF Form 4473 during future purchases, which helps the system tell you apart from someone with a similar name and a disqualifying record.¹⁴

If the administrative process fails, you can file a lawsuit under 18 U.S.C. § 925A. The FBI encourages exhausting the administrative options first, but the right to go to court exists.¹³

Where the Law Is Unsettled

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen changed how courts review gun laws by requiring the government to show that a regulation is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. That standard has produced a wave of challenges to § 922(g), particularly the felon-in-possession ban.

Federal appellate courts are divided. The Third Circuit, in Range v. Attorney General, held that § 922(g)(1) could not constitutionally be applied to a man whose only disqualifying conviction was making false statements to obtain food stamps, a non-violent offense that historically would not have led to disarmament. The Ninth Circuit reached a similar result in United States v. Duarte, striking down the statute as applied to a defendant with five non-violent priors.¹⁵ The Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits have rejected such challenges and upheld the categorical ban, reasoning that historical tradition supports disarming people with serious criminal records without case-by-case review.

The restraining order provision was upheld in Rahimi, but the Court’s opinion was narrow and addressed only cases involving a judicial finding of credible threat.⁴ Challenges to other categories, including drug users, people with mental health adjudications, and non-violent felons, are still working through the lower courts. The Supreme Court has not yet taken a case that would resolve the circuit split on felon-in-possession, so whether § 922(g)(1) applies constitutionally to a non-violent offender depends, for now, on where the case is filed.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 922 – Unlawful Acts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 921 – Definitions
3
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Misdemeanor Crimes of Domestic Violence Prohibitions
4
Supreme Court of the United States. United States v. Rahimi, No. 22-915
5
Federal Register. Revising Definition of Unlawful User of or Addicted to Controlled Substance
6
Federal Register. Schedules of Controlled Substances – Rescheduling of Food and Drug Administration-Approved Products
7
Federal Register. Firearms Disabilities for Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens
8
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Most Frequently Asked Firearms Questions and Answers
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 924 – Penalties
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 3571 – Sentence of Fine
11
Federal Register. Application for Relief From Disabilities Imposed by Federal Laws With Respect to the Acquisition
12
U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Under 18 U.S. Code 925(c)
13
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Requesting a Reason for and/or Challenging a NICS-Related Denial
14
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Voluntary Appeal File
15
Congress.gov. Courts Disagree as to Whether the Federal Felon-in-Possession Statute Is Constitutional