Why It’s Time for Rights Restoration

I’m fine with punishing criminals. While it doesn’t seem to deter any of them, removing them from society for a time does seem to make us safer in the time they’re locked up. Some even see the error of their ways and do their best to reintegrate into society. I absolutely love to see it happen, too.

The problem is that we often continue to punish those who have cleaned up their act for far too long.

It’s not enough that they were locked up, you see. We also have to deny them their right to keep and bear arms. In some cases, I can see the thinking. Violent, recidivist criminals aren’t exactly upstanding citizens, after all, so why treat them as such?

But others aren’t, and as Charles C.W. Cooke notes at America’s 1st Freedom, it’s time we change that.

Under federal law, Americans who have been convicted of crimes that are punishable by prison sentences of more than one year’s duration are automatically deprived of their constitutional right to keep and bear arms—even after their sentences have been completed and even if the person never actually served a day in custody. This rule has been in force since the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act, and it is applied everywhere in the country, irrespective of the character of the crime at hand.

Outside of a few esoteric exemptions (“antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade or other similar offenses relating to the regulation of business practices”), and an asterisk next to state misdemeanors that yield imprisonment of two years or less, there are no caveats within the statute. The law does not distinguish between violent and nonviolent crimes; it does not turn upon a finding of dangerousness; and it includes no classification mechanism to sort between different types of lawbreaking. In consequence, it applies equally to a person who has been convicted of misdemeanor welfare fraud and is sentenced to probation as to a person who has been convicted of felony murder and serves decades in prison—providing that the sentencing guidelines fit the bill.

If, in a fit of overzealous pique, a state were to turn littering into a felony punishable by more than 365 days in prison, those who were convicted under that law would automatically lose their right to keep and bear arms. In this area, alas, the justice system isn’t so much blind as it is braindead.

Putting to one side the asininity of the approach, there are two legal problems with this system that simply cannot be ignored. The first problem is that the disqualification parameters written into the 1968 Gun Control Act are plainly unconstitutional—and have become especially so in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), which required that all firearms laws must have a clear historical analog or be presumed invalid. The second problem is that, thanks to a cynical change that was made in 1992, Congress has foreclosed the only avenue for appeal that had been made available to the citizenry. When combined, these two decisions have resulted in a core civil right being routinely infringed, and in nobody—however deserving—being able to seek a reprieve.

Exactly.

With Bruen, it’s still possible to disarm those who present a danger to the public, such as those violent recidivists I mentioned, but what about someone who bounced a check above a certain amount so they could put groceries in the fridge? What about those who made a mistake 30 years ago, but have lived on the straight and narrow ever since?

These people aren’t a danger, and as such, I see no way under Bruen where they can justifiably be denied their constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

As things were, though, that could have been addressed. The process for rights restoration existed, but anti-gun lawmakers defunded it in 1992, as Cooke notes. That means no one could get their rights back. Plenty tried, but they shouldn’t have had such a hard time.

It’s well past time this was addressed, and I’m genuinely glad to see it being addressed without the courts having to force the issue. It’s simply unacceptable that it went on for this long.

It’s well past time that we fixed this, so kudos to the Trump administration for doing it.

However, I also want to see Congress codify this so the next anti-gun administration can’t undo it. It’s not enough for executive action to take place. We need actual laws that presidents can’t just bypass because they don’t like what the last guy did.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

Help us continue to report on their efforts and legislative successes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.