Most states restrict firearm rights too broadly and make restoration difficult, in potential violation of the Second Amendment, according to new report FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 5, 2025 Media Contact: Margaret Love Margaretlove@pardonlaw.com Loss of firearm rights after a felony conviction extends well beyond what is necessary to advance public safety objectives, according to a study released today by the Collateral Consequences Resource Center. The loss of rights is permanent in most states, and under federal law. The study shows that each state operates under its own complex legal framework with overlapping federal requirements that create the possibility of further criminal jeopardy for inadvertent violations. Only 13 states limit dispossession to violent crimes, and more than two-thirds of the states offer no route to firearm relief to residents convicted in another state or in federal court. Only 16 states provide a way to regain lost rights that is easily accessible to all state residents. CCRC’s report, Restoration of Firearm Rights After Conviction: A National Survey and Suggestions for Reform, offers a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the differing ways states restrict and restore the right to possess a firearm, including relevant sections of statutory text to […]
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Restoration of Rights Project (RRP)
- Loss & restoration of civil/firearms rights
- Pardon policy & practice
- Expungement, sealing & other record relief
- Criminal record in employment, licensing & housing
RRP: State-By-State Guides
RRP: 50-State Comparisons
Restoration of Firearm Rights After Conviction: A National Survey and Recommendations for Reform (Dec. 2025)

50-state comparisons
About the Restoration of Rights Project
The Restoration of Rights Project (RRP) is a project of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center in partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid & Defender Association, National HIRE Network, Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, and Paper Prisons Initiative. Launched in 2017, the RRP is an online resource containing detailed state-by-state analyses of the law and practice in each U.S. jurisdiction relating to restoration of rights and status following arrest or conviction. Jurisdictional “profiles” cover areas such as loss and restoration of civil rights and firearms rights, judicial and executive mechanisms for avoiding or mitigating collateral consequences, and provisions addressing non-discrimination in employment, licensing, and housing. In addition to the jurisdictional profiles, RRP materials include a set of 50-state comparison charts that make it possible to see national patterns in restoration laws and policies. Short “postcard” summaries of the law in each state serve as a gateway to the more detailed information in the profiles, and provide a snapshot of applicable law in each state.
Originally published in 2006 by CCRC Executive Director Margaret Love, the research in the RRP has been kept up to date and substantially expanded over the years, and it is summarized in an appendix to the treatise on collateral consequences published jointly by NACDL and Thompson Reuters (West). It is intended as a resource for practitioners in all phases of the criminal justice system, for courts, for civil practitioners assisting clients whose court-imposed sentence has exposed them to additional civil penalties, for policymakers and advocates interested in reentry and reintegration of convicted persons, and for the millions of Americans with a criminal record who are seeking to put their past behind them.
These resources may be republished as long as appropriate attribution is given to the RRP as its source.




