Here Is Who DOJ Restored Gun Rights To After Three-Decade Hiatus

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday the names of the first people to have their federal gun rights restored in a program re-started by the Trump administration.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on August 17 that DOJ was reviving a process allowed by federal law that provided a way for those who lost gun rights due to criminal convictions to have them restored. In the regulation published Thursday, Blanche’s office announced that nine individuals had their gun rights reinstated under the new process, one of whom was convicted of a felony for listening in on calls about re-districting in 2002.

“Attorney General Todd Blanche has reviewed all the relevant facts for each individual listed below, including the materials that each individual submitted seeking either a pardon or relief from Federal firearms disabilities, and it is established to his satisfaction that each individual will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety and that the granting of the relief to each individual would not be contrary to the public interest,” the regulation read.

While federal law provides for a process to restore Second Amendment rights lost after a felony conviction or other circumstances, Congress had largely blocked the process since 1992 by refusing to allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to spend any federal funds on it. The process has now been moved to the Office of the Pardon Attorney as opposed to ATF, according to the August 17 release.

The nine individuals whose gun rights were restored are Patrick Atkinson, Thomas Leon Brooks, Truman James Cox, Dennis L. Haynes, Joshua Ryan Huffman, Dennis William Richardson, Nicholas Robert Sylvester, Jeffrey Alan Wines and Edmund Arthur Matricardi, III.

Marticardi was convicted of illegally intercepting a phone call during which Virginia Democrats were discussing plans to challenge the state’s redistricting after the 2000 census, The New York Times reported. According to a 2022 decision from the Eastern District of Illinois dismissing a challenge to federal laws prohibiting a felon from possessing a firearm, Patrick Atkinson had a 1998 felony conviction for mail fraud.

A February 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump directed the DOJ to review government policies to address infringements of Second Amendment rights and to actively protect the right to keep and bear arms.

Eight individuals had their gun rights restored as of May 18, 2026, while a ninth person’s rights were reinstated on August 5.