Section 925 of Title 18 does two different jobs inside federal firearms law. It carves out exceptions to the restrictions in Chapter 44 — for government-issued weapons, for personal firearms sent to military members stationed overseas, and for imports that meet a sporting-purposes or curio-and-relic test — and it authorizes prohibited persons to apply to the Attorney General for restoration of their firearm rights. The exceptions still function normally. The relief application, on paper, still exists. In practice, Congress has blocked funding for individual relief petitions since the early 1990s, so most people looking at 18 U.S.C. 925 for firearm exceptions and relief from disabilities will use the exceptions if they qualify and pursue a state remedy if they need their rights back.
What Section 925 Exempts from Federal Gun Laws
The broadest exception is institutional. Under 925(a)(1), almost all of Chapter 44’s restrictions drop away for firearms and ammunition imported for, sold to, or issued for the use of the United States, any federal department or agency, any state, or any local government.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities That lets a police department buy and issue restricted firearms for official duty and lets licensed manufacturers fill government contracts for items like machine guns or suppressors that would be tightly controlled for civilian buyers under the National Firearms Act.2Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. National Firearms Act
This is an agency exemption, not a personal one. Nothing in 925(a)(1) allows an officer who is individually prohibited to carry a duty weapon. And there is one hard limit written into the statute: the government exemption does not override the domestic violence provisions. Sections 922(d)(9) and 922(g)(9) still apply in full, so a law enforcement officer convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence remains barred from possessing firearms, on duty or off.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities
Personal Firearms for Service Members Overseas
Two provisions handle the practical problem of a service member abroad who wants to buy a firearm through a licensed U.S. dealer. Under 925(a)(3), a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer may ship a firearm or ammunition to an active-duty member stationed outside the United States, or to a Department of Defense-recognized club made up entirely of such members, as long as the item is recognized as suitable for sporting purposes and is intended for the member’s personal use. Under 925(a)(4), the Attorney General may authorize a service member to bring a firearm back into the country on return, provided the person is on active duty overseas or was within the preceding 60 days.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities
Neither provision creates a general military exemption from the prohibited-persons categories. A service member who falls into a 922(g) category is prohibited the same as any civilian.
Imports and the Sporting Purposes Test
Section 925(d) controls what firearms can lawfully enter the country. The Attorney General must authorize any import, and approval is limited to four categories: firearms for scientific or research use (including certain military-marksmanship training under chapter 751 of title 10); unserviceable firearms brought in as curios or museum pieces, excluding machine guns; non-NFA firearms that are recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, with surplus military firearms excluded; and firearms being returned by the same person who previously took them out of the country. Importing the frame, receiver, or barrel of a prohibited firearm is unlawful if the assembled weapon would not qualify.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities
Most import disputes turn on the sporting purposes determination. ATF has historically evaluated factors like size, weight, caliber, and design features through a series of study reports. If a firearm is denied, the statute allows conditional importation for examination and testing before a final decision.
Curios and Relics
Section 925(e) requires the Attorney General to authorize licensed importers to bring in rifles and shotguns classified as curios or relics. Handguns on the curio-and-relic list still have to satisfy the sporting purposes test.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities A firearm qualifies as a curio or relic if it was manufactured at least 50 years ago in its original configuration (replicas excluded), if it has been certified by the curator of a government museum that exhibits firearms, or if it derives significant value from being rare, novel, or historically significant.3Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Curios and Relics Collectors holding a Type 03 Federal Firearms License can receive curio-and-relic firearms directly from licensed dealers, though the 922(g) prohibitions still apply to the collector personally.
Relief from Firearms Disabilities Under 925(c)
Section 925(c) is the provision most searchers arrive looking for. It lets a person barred from possessing firearms petition the Attorney General for restoration of their rights. The applicant has to show two things: that their record and reputation make it unlikely they would act in a way dangerous to public safety, and that granting relief would not be contrary to the public interest. A denial can be reviewed in federal district court. When relief is granted, the Attorney General must publish the decision and reasoning in the Federal Register. Licensed importers, manufacturers, dealers, and collectors get one added protection: they can continue operating under their license while an application is pending.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions; Relief from Disabilities
Why Individual Applications Are Frozen
Here the statute and reality part ways. Since the early 1990s, Congress has attached a rider to ATF’s annual appropriations that prohibits the agency from spending any money to process individual petitions under 925(c). ATF states this plainly: only corporations may currently apply for relief, because Congress has not appropriated funds for individual applications.4Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Application for Restoration of Firearms Privileges
The result is a right without a remedy. The statute authorizes individuals to apply and to seek judicial review of a denial, but ATF cannot act on anything, and courts have split on whether an individual can go directly to federal court for review when the agency has never issued a decision. For an individual prohibited person, the federal relief path is effectively closed. For a corporation — a manufacturer or dealer that has become a prohibited entity — the process still functions.
State Restoration as the Practical Alternative
Because federal relief is largely unavailable, the working alternative for most individuals is a state remedy that federal law will recognize. Under 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(20), a conviction is not treated as disqualifying if it has been expunged, set aside, or pardoned, or if the person’s civil rights have been restored. The critical caveat: if the pardon, expungement, or restoration expressly says the person still cannot possess firearms, the federal prohibition survives.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions
State procedures differ significantly. Some states automatically restore civil rights on completion of sentence. Others require a separate petition. A handful restore most civil rights but carve out firearm rights, which leaves the federal disability in place. Anyone using this route needs to confirm that the state’s process fully restores the right to possess firearms without any express firearms carve-out.
How Courts Are Reviewing Firearm Prohibitions Now
The other route back to firearm rights is a constitutional challenge to the underlying prohibition, and the analysis courts apply changed in 2022 and again in 2024.
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen (2022), the Supreme Court held that where a firearm regulation touches conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text, the government must justify the regulation as consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The means-end scrutiny tests lower courts had used for over a decade were rejected.6Supreme Court of the United States. New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn Inc v Bruen
In United States v. Rahimi (2024), the Court applied that framework to uphold 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(8), which bars firearm possession by a person subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order with a finding of credible threat. The Court held that a modern law does not need an identical historical twin; it must be “relevantly similar” to historical regulations in both why and how it burdens the right to bear arms. Founding-era surety laws and “going armed” statutes supplied the analogy for temporarily disarming individuals judicially found to threaten the physical safety of others. The Court also noted that the historical tradition test is “not meant to suggest a law trapped in amber.”7Supreme Court of the United States. United States v Rahimi
Practical takeaway: prohibitions aimed at people who have demonstrably threatened others sit on the strongest historical ground. Blanket lifetime bans premised on minor or nonviolent conduct are more exposed. Pre-Bruen circuit decisions like Binderup v. Attorney General (Third Circuit, allowing as-applied challenges by two individuals with minor offenses) and United States v. Skoien (Seventh Circuit, upholding 922(g)(9)) illustrate the point, though their reasoning would be redone under the current framework.8Justia. Binderup v Attorney General of the United States9Justia. USA v Steven Skoien
Who Is Prohibited in the First Place
The exceptions in Section 925 only matter against the backdrop of Section 922(g), which bars nine categories of people from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing any firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate commerce — a scope that reaches virtually every firearm in the country. The categories include felony convictions (crimes punishable by more than a year in prison, with narrow exceptions for certain business-regulation offenses and state misdemeanors carrying two years or less), fugitives from justice, unlawful users of controlled substances, people adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution, certain noncitizens, those dishonorably discharged from the military, those who have renounced U.S. citizenship, people subject to qualifying domestic violence restraining orders, and those convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
Penalties for Getting It Wrong
The cost of a wrong guess on any of this is high. Under 18 U.S.C. 924(a)(2), knowingly violating several provisions of Section 922 carries up to 10 years in federal prison, a fine, or both. The same 10-year maximum applies to anyone who ships or transports a firearm in interstate commerce knowing or having reason to believe it will be used in a crime punishable by more than a year in prison. If a firearm is used during a crime of violence or drug trafficking offense, 924(c) imposes mandatory consecutive sentences that can add years or decades to the underlying term.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties
For licensees, Section 923(e) allows the Attorney General to revoke a Federal Firearms License after notice and a hearing for willful violations of Chapter 44 or its regulations, or for transferring armor-piercing ammunition. A licensee whose license is revoked can request a hearing and, if unsatisfied, petition a federal district court for de novo review within 60 days.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 923 – Licensing Revocation ends the business, and because it typically follows a finding of willful violations, the same conduct often supports criminal charges in parallel.