On July 18, 2025, the Department of Justice announced a proposed rule to grant relief to individuals who are precluded by federal law from possessing firearms. The announcement and the draft of the proposed rule are available here.

Federal law has included a provision under 18 USC 925 for relief of disabilities for many years. However, for almost three decades Congress has overtly refused to appropriate funds to ATF to process the relief of disability applications. Thus, while the law provided for a mechanism of relief, Congress, even under the control of current and prior Republican majorities has refused to allocate funds for this purpose.

In 2025, the Trump Administration announced that while Congress might have the authority to block funding to permit the ATF to process these application, Congress had not and likely could not block the Attorney General from doing so. As a result, Attorney General Bondi has been reviewing written requests for relief of disability such as the restoration that has already been granted of Mel Gibson‘s rights and several others.

The announcement of this new process could come as welcome news to many in Tennessee who have been granted restorations of their rights and even expungements at the state level (or in other states) but for whom ATF or FBI have taken the position on background checks that they are still considered “prohibited” under the agencies’ interpretation of either federal law and/or of the effectiveness of the state procedures.

The Department of Justice announcement is of a proposed new rule to outline this process, to provide some standards for who will be eligible, who will be “presumptively” ineligible and other details such as waiting periods and application fees. That process should be starting soon and will be open to comments from the public.