The most consequential news in the August 31 Grassroots Legislative Report, penned by Tanya Metaksa for TheGunMag, is a federal one: the Department of Justice has finalized a rule to relaunch the long-dormant process for restoring firearm rights lost under federal law.
A Program Frozen Since the Early ’90s
Relief from federal firearm disabilities has been effectively unavailable for roughly 34 years, according to NRA-ILA, because annual appropriations riders barred ATF from spending money to process restoration applications. That logjam is now breaking.
On Aug. 20, DOJ published a final rule setting application standards for relief under the Gun Control Act, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 925(c). The rule completes a process that began in February 2025 and moves administration away from ATF to DOJ, under the Attorney General’s statutory authority.
The Rollout Schedule
DOJ is going phased. The invited applicant pool opens Sept. 26, 2026. On Nov. 4, 2026, the department will accept 5,000 applications from the general public. Another 500 will be accepted starting Jan. 4, 2027. Once the system is fully running, the rule anticipates roughly 330,000 applications per year.
DOJ incorporated several NRA-ILA recommendations into the final version, according to the group. Certain technical Gun Control Act violations now trigger presumptive ineligibility for 10 years after sentence completion rather than a permanent bar. Applicants who can’t obtain required records may submit an affidavit explaining their efforts. DOJ may revoke granted relief only by showing the underlying application was fraudulent. And a proposed requirement that applicants notify their local chief law-enforcement officer was dropped.
NRA-ILA still isn’t happy on every front. The group calls the rule overly bureaucratic and warns that DOJ retains substantial discretion over individual applications—discretion a future administration could wield restrictively. It also objects to a requirement that applicants disclose overseas arrests and prosecutions, even where foreign convictions wouldn’t create a federal firearms disability on their own.
One important limit: a successful federal application clears only a federal disability. Anyone under a separate state-law prohibition still has to pursue whatever state restoration process applies.
California’s Final-Week Blitz
As the legislature closed out its session, three gun bills cleared and headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, per Metaksa’s report.
AB1743, after passing the Senate, requires a concurrence vote in the Assembly. It expands access to firearm owners’ information—a live concern given the 2022 leak of personal gun-owner data.
SB948 significantly expands the Firearm Safety Certificate requirement, mandating a minimum four-hour class with live-fire and official instruction beginning in 2028.
SB1220 creates a new misdemeanor and a 10-year firearm ban for anyone convicted of dealing with a gun that has altered identifying marks or a removed serial number—conduct California already treats as a misdemeanor.
Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio run their sessions through Dec. 31, while Pennsylvania’s stretches to Nov. 30, 2027.
Runoffs and Primaries
In Oklahoma’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Mike Mazzei narrowly beat Attorney General Gentner Drummond, 50.3% to 49.7%, though the NRA PVF rated both an A. In the state House, District 18 went to David Smith.
In South Carolina’s U.S. Senate special-primary runoff, Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman, 52.5% to 47.5%.
Primaries in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island fall on Sept. 8 and 9. In New Hampshire’s crowded 12-candidate Senate field, only John E. Sununu drew an A from NRA-PVF. Gov. Kelly Ayotte is endorsed for re-election.
RE: “Gun Control Act, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 925(c).”
Once again the Gun Control Act sits on a pedestal looking down its nose at dumb non violent mortals who have broken some law that had strings attached like losing 2A Rights.
The much bigger problem are the Gun talking blowbags who look the other way whenever the 1968 Gun Control Act is mentioned. Frankly Gun Control even receiving the time of day in America is despicable when History Confirms Gun Control is the best pal Racism, Slavery and Genocide ever had.
I’m talking to you blowbags whose heads are so far up your ignorant butts you cannot see the 1968 GUN CONTROL Act is the alter where Gun Control zealots worship and from which they derive their perpetual pompous demonic powers.
And what did Gun talking blowbags do when mobs of democRats marched in lockstep to destroy all signs of their ancestor’s Civil War era monuments, etc? Did Gun talking blowbags form a counter march to remove The 1968 Gun Control Act from nation’s highest lawbooks? Blowbags sat silent while the most vile race based agenda ever created was allowed to skate by without a scratch.