Can You Own a Gun with a Dishonorable Discharge?

No. If you received a dishonorable discharge, you cannot legally own a gun under federal law. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(6), anyone “discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions” is barred for life from possessing, receiving, shipping, or transporting any firearm or ammunition.¹ The ban is permanent unless you win it back through one of a few narrow legal routes, and it applies whether you try to buy a gun at a dealer, accept one as a gift, or pick up a box of ammunition components at a hardware store.

What the Ban Actually Covers

The prohibition reaches every firearm and all ammunition, with no exceptions for caliber, intended use, or how the weapon came into your hands. You cannot possess a gun you already owned before the discharge. You cannot accept one as a gift. You cannot buy one through a private sale, and federal law also makes it illegal for a private seller to transfer a firearm to anyone the seller knows or has reason to believe is prohibited.²

“Ammunition” is defined broadly. It covers loaded cartridges and individual components: primers, bullets, cases, and propellant powder.³ A can of powder or a tray of primers on your workbench is treated the same way as a loaded handgun.

For commissioned officers, the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge is a “dismissal.” ATF regulations pull both into the same prohibited category, so a dismissal adjudged by a general court-martial triggers the identical lifetime ban.⁴

Which Discharges Trigger the Ban

Only a dishonorable discharge (or officer dismissal) from a general court-martial triggers 922(g)(6). Other separation types do not, at least not by themselves:

Honorable discharge: no effect on firearm rights.
General discharge (under honorable conditions): no effect.
Other Than Honorable (OTH): an administrative separation for misconduct; does not trigger the federal ban on its own.
Bad Conduct Discharge (BCD): punitive, but does not fall within the regulatory definition of “dishonorable conditions” and does not trigger the ban on its own.⁴

There’s a catch that matters. The conduct underlying any of these lesser discharges can still make you a prohibited person through a different route. A court-martial conviction for an offense punishable by more than one year in prison triggers the felony-equivalent ban under 922(g)(1), regardless of what the discharge itself was called.¹ So a veteran with a BCD or OTH can still be barred from guns, just under a different subsection.

Living With Someone Who Owns Guns

You do not need to be caught holding a firearm to face federal charges. “Constructive possession” means having the ability and intent to exercise control over a gun, even when it legally belongs to someone else. If your spouse, partner, or housemate keeps firearms accessible in a home you share, prosecutors can argue you constructively possess them. This is where many prohibited people run into trouble without realizing they were exposed.

The Department of Justice recommends that when a prohibited person lives in the household, gun-owning members store all firearms unloaded in a locked safe resistant to tampering, use trigger or cable locks as an additional layer, and keep ammunition locked separately.⁵ Keys and combinations belong somewhere the prohibited person cannot reach. Hiding a firearm does not count as secure storage. Disassembling firearms and storing the parts in separate locked locations is another option.

The Antique Firearm Carve-Out

Federal law defines “firearm” so that the term “does not include an antique firearm,” and that definitional carve-out applies to prohibited persons too.³ Antique firearms include:

Any firearm manufactured in or before 1898, including matchlock, flintlock, and percussion cap ignition systems.
Replicas of pre-1899 firearms, but only if the replica isn’t designed for conventional rimfire or centerfire ammunition, or uses ammunition no longer commercially made in the United States.
Muzzle-loading rifles, shotguns, and pistols designed for black powder that cannot use fixed ammunition. Any weapon converted to a muzzleloader, or a muzzleloader that can be readily converted back to fire fixed ammunition, is excluded.

In principle, then, a person with a dishonorable discharge can own a genuine black-powder muzzleloader under federal law. State law is another matter. Many states define “firearm” more broadly than the federal definition, and some prohibit possession by certain categories of people regardless of what the federal carve-out says. Check your state’s law before relying on this exception.

What Happens if You Get Caught

A standard violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is punishable by up to 15 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act raised the maximum from 10 to 15 years in 2022.⁶

Under the Armed Career Criminal Act, someone who violates § 922(g) and has three or more prior convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years with no probation.⁷ Federal sentences carry no parole. Congress eliminated parole for federal crimes committed after November 1, 1987, replacing it with supervised release after the prison term.⁸ Good-time credits can shave a modest amount off the sentence, but the bulk of it is served. State charges can stack on top of the federal case.

Lying on ATF Form 4473 to try to buy a gun is a separate offense under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6), with its own maximum of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. The FBI’s NICS background check draws on military separation records, so a false answer is usually caught.

How to Try to Restore Your Firearm Rights

Restoration is possible but genuinely difficult. Three routes exist, and none is fast or guaranteed.

Upgrade the Discharge

The cleanest fix is getting the military to change the discharge itself. Any upgrade away from “dishonorable” dissolves the 922(g)(6) prohibition. But because a dishonorable discharge comes from a general court-martial, the Discharge Review Board has no jurisdiction. Federal regulations limit the DRB to discharges that did not result from a general court-martial sentence.⁹

Instead, you apply to your branch’s Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR) using DD Form 149.¹⁰ The BCMR can correct errors or injustices in a military record, including upgrading a discharge. These cases are documentation-heavy, usually involve legal representation, and approval rates for upgrading dishonorable discharges are low.

Federal Relief From Disabilities Under § 925(c)

Under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c), a prohibited person can apply to the Attorney General for relief. Relief may be granted if the applicant shows they are not likely to be dangerous and that restoration would not be contrary to the public interest. A denial can be appealed to a federal district court.¹¹

This program was effectively frozen for more than three decades: starting in 1992, Congress barred ATF from spending funds to process § 925(c) applications. In 2025, the Attorney General withdrew that delegation from ATF and began building a new program inside the Department of Justice.¹² As of early 2026, a proposed rule has been published and DOJ has said an online application will be available after a final rule is issued, but the process is not yet operational.¹³

Presidential Pardon

A presidential pardon can restore firearm rights, but it’s the longest shot. Petitions go to the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice, the FBI typically runs a background investigation, and the process can take years with no guarantee.¹⁴

Until one of these routes succeeds, the answer to whether you can own a gun stays the same. You can’t, and the ammunition on the shelf counts too.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
2
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Best Practices: Transfers of Firearms by Private Sellers
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions
4
ATF eRegulations. 27 CFR 478.11 – Meaning of Terms
5
Department of Justice. Safe Storage of Firearms – Unload It, Lock It, Store It
6
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). ATF Form 4473 – Firearms Transaction Record Revisions
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties
8
Department of Justice. United States Parole Commission Organization, Mission and Functions Manual
9
eCFR. 32 CFR Part 70 – Discharge Review Board (DRB) Procedures
10
Department of Defense. DD Form 293 – Application for the Review of Discharge From the Armed Forces
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 925 – Exceptions: Relief From Disabilities
12
Regulations.gov. Application for Relief From Disabilities Imposed by Federal Laws With Respect to the Acquisition, Receipt, Transfer, Shipment, Transportation, or Possession of Firearms
13
U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Under 18 USC 925(c)
14
U.S. Department of Justice. How Clemency Works: Office of the Pardon Attorney