For more than three decades, Washington had a process on the books for restoring federal firearm rights—and almost no functioning way for ordinary Americans to use it.

President Trump’s Justice Department just changed that.

Attorney General Todd Blanche has finalized a new federal rule that creates an individual application process for eligible Americans who are barred from possessing firearms under federal law.

No blanket pardon is hiding in the fine print. Relief is neither automatic nor available on demand to violent criminals.

The change establishes something far more basic: a real path for a person to show that a lifetime federal disability no longer fits the facts of his life.

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The heart of the change is 18 U.S.C. § 925(c), a provision Congress wrote to let prohibited individuals apply to the attorney general for relief from federal firearm restrictions.

That mechanism was effectively frozen beginning in 1992, when Congress stopped the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from spending appropriated funds to process most applications.

The statute remained. The practical doorway disappeared.

The Justice Department says Blanche’s final rule restores individualized review while keeping strict public-safety standards in place. An applicant must persuade the attorney general that his record, reputation, conduct since the disqualifying event and surrounding circumstances show he is unlikely to endanger the public.

The department must also conclude that restoring the person’s federal rights would serve the public interest. DOJ says violent felons, registered sex offenders, illegal aliens and people who still present an ongoing danger will remain presumptively ineligible absent extraordinary circumstances.

State-law prohibitions remain intact even if federal relief is granted. The department estimates that more than 30 million Americans may currently be blocked under federal law, but every successful applicant will have to build an individual record and clear the government’s safety review.

The standard is demanding because the stakes are real.

But a demanding hearing is still radically different from a permanent government “no” that cannot be appealed through the process Congress already authorized.

Blanche put the constitutional principle plainly: “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right.”

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That sentence matters because the federal government has spent decades treating many firearm disabilities as if the passage of time, rehabilitation and the individual facts could never matter.

Under this rule, they finally can.

The final rule also draws hard lines.

According to the Justice Department, violent felons, registered sex offenders, illegal aliens and people who still present an ongoing danger will remain presumptively ineligible absent extraordinary circumstances.

Federal relief will not erase an independent state-law ban, either.

That distinction cuts through one of the loudest attacks on the policy. The Trump administration is not pretending every prohibited person is safe or entitled to immediate restoration.

It is refusing to pretend every prohibited person is permanently dangerous.

The signed final rule runs 144 pages and lays out the government’s review standards in detail. Applicants with convictions involving homicide, kidnapping, terrorism, aggravated violence and other grave conduct face strong or permanent presumptions against relief.

Other categories carry time-based presumptions: certain drug-trafficking and domestic-violence convictions can trigger a ten-year waiting period after the sentence is completed, while other felony convictions can trigger a five-year period. The application record must include certified court documents, fingerprints, character references and notice to the chief law-enforcement officer where the applicant lives.

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The attorney general can demand additional information, investigate the applicant’s history and deny relief when the evidence leaves public-safety concerns unresolved. The order grants federal relief only; it cannot wipe away a separate firearm restriction imposed by a state.

In other words, this is a case file—not a rubber stamp.

The department says it received 15,559 public comments while building the rule. Roughly 91 percent supported the objective of reviving a restoration process.

Those comments came from people who described losing access to armed security work, hunting and the ability to defend their families long after the conduct behind their disability was over.

They also came from critics worried that restoration could be too broad.

The final framework answers both concerns by restoring due process without abandoning scrutiny.

The rollout will happen in stages.

The Federal Firearm Rights Restoration portal says invited applicants can begin on September 25, 2026. The public opening follows on November 4, when the first 5,000 candidates can apply.

Another 500 public application slots are scheduled to open January 4, 2027, when a $30 application fee begins. DOJ is publishing eligibility guidance, presumptive disqualifiers, document requirements, fingerprint instructions and character-reference rules before the public window opens.

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Applicants will submit through the department’s online system and will need to certify the accuracy of their records. The staggered calendar is designed to keep the initial caseload manageable while the new office tests a process the federal government has not operated at scale in 34 years.

People who miss the first window will have to wait for later capacity rather than slipping into an unreviewed queue.

That staged launch may frustrate people who have already waited years.

Still, it is the first operational route many of them have seen in a generation.

There is a larger constitutional point here, too.

A right does not mean much if the government can take it away permanently, keep a restoration law on the books and then make the process impossible to use.

President Trump’s DOJ is forcing the federal government to judge individuals as individuals again.

Dangerous people remain disarmed. People who can prove rehabilitation finally get a hearing.

After 34 years of a locked door, that is a serious Second Amendment victory.

 

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