How To Restore Your Gun Rights in California

If you have a felony conviction in California that did not result in a prison sentence, you may be eligible to have your conviction reduced to a misdemeanor. This reduction can remove the state and federal firearm prohibition. If your gun rights were revoked as a result of a domestic violence conviction, you may not be eligible to restore your gun rights if the conviction falls within the Lautenberg Amendment's definition of domestic violence.

If you would like to restore your California gun rights, please call (877) 573-7273

Video Transcript:

A conviction in California can cause you to lose your firearm rights. We will discuss the three most common situations that cause people to lose their Second Amendment rights.

Eligible Offenses for Firearm Right Restoration

If you were convicted of certain misdemeanors that are described in California Penal Code Section 12021.1, you will not be able to own a firearm for 10-years from the time of your conviction. These types of misdemeanors are typically:

• Violent misdemeanors like assault or battery
• Involve things like stalking or terrorist threat
• Or are other misdemeanors that involve the use of a firearm or use of a deadly weapon

This prohibition is from the state of California and is a 10-year probation that starts from the time of your conviction. An expungement or record sealing will NOT restore your firearm rights. You will need to wait the 10-years even if you have your conviction expunged or sealed. The only way this can be lifted is if you get a court order from a judge. A judge can only grant this court order if you are currently an employee of the state of California and your job requires you to own or possess a firearm.

Reducing Felony "Wobblers" to Misdemeanors

If your offense was a felony conviction, both state and federal laws prevent you from owning a firearm for life. The good new is that in California many offenses can be reduced to a misdemeanor. Those types of felony offenses are often referred to as "wobblers." If your felony offense is a wobbler that is reduced to a misdemeanor, your firearm rights will be restored in California and federally. To know if your offense was a wobbler, you need to know two things:

• If the offense at the time of sentencing allowed for the judge to give you jail time. If the offense says you can be sentenced to county jail time for up to 1 year, or state penitentiary or state prison, the offense is a wobbler. If the Penal Code Section that you were convicted of only allows for imprisonment, then your offense is not a wobbler.
• The second thing would be what sentence did the judge actually give you. If the judge gave you a suspended prison sentence or sent you to prison, the offense is not a wobbler. So, the two things you want to look for are 1) make sure the sentence for the offense could have included county jail time, and 2) that you did not get sent to prison and that your sentence was not a suspended prison sentence.

Domestic Violence and Firearm Ownership

Lastly, a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence can prevent you from owning a firearm. Federal law, often referred to as the Lautenberg Amendment, says that anyone convicted of a crime that meets the federal definition of misdemeanor domestic violence has a lifetime probation from owning a firearm. There are a couple of things to keep in mind about this law. First, it only applies to misdemeanors. So, if you have a felony domestic violence, this law does not apply though other prohibition may that result from it. The second is that expungement and record sealing will not restore your right to own a firearm that was lost as a result of a misdemeanor conviction unless the state also took away your firearm rights as a result of the conviction and restored it as a right of the expungement.

For a California gun rights restoration analysis, please call (877) 573-7273.