Background

• Misdemeanor Convictions: People who have previously been convicted of a violent misdemeanor are nine times more likely to be charged with another violent offense after purchasing a handgun, compared to people with no criminal history.¹ State laws which prohibit firearm purchase for individuals with a history of violent misdemeanor convictions are associated with an 18% reduction in firearm homicides overall² and a 23% reduction in firearm intimate partner homicides.³
• Hate Crimes: Hate crime incidents in the US rose 48% between 2014 and 2020,⁴ and each year, there are more than 10,300 hate crime incidents involving firearms.⁵ Studies show that people with a history of hate crime convictions are at significantly higher risk of committing further violence.⁶
• Alcohol and Substance Misuse: Heavy alcohol use and misuse can increase the risk of dangerous and risky behavior with firearms. In fact, studies show that approximately a quarter of firearm suicide victims and roughly a third of firearm homicide victims and offenders heavily consumed alcohol prior to their death.⁷ People with a history of alcohol related offenses, such as DUIs, are five times more likely to be arrested for firearm related crimes compared to individuals without such convictions.⁸

• Juvenile Offenses: Juvenile justice involvement more than triples the likelihood of adult violent felony arrest,⁹ and people with a felony-equivalent juvenile conviction are nine times more likely to be arrested for a firearm-involved crime compared to the general population.¹⁰

Summary of Federal Law

• Has been convicted of, or is under indictment for:
  • A federal crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year (typically a felony, however, federal or state offenses pertaining to antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade, or other similar offenses relating to the regulation of business practices are exempt.¹¹)
  • A state crime that is not classified as a misdemeanor and is punishable by imprisonment for more than one year
  • A state crime that is classified as a misdemeanor under state law and is punishable by more than two years imprisonment¹²
• Is a fugitive from justice¹³
• Is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance”¹⁴
  • Though certain states have legalized the use of medical and recreational marijuana, it remains illegal under federal law. Therefore, ATF considers people who use marijuana legally under state law unlawful users of a controlled substance.¹⁵
• Is underage (For additional information about federal age restrictions for the purchase and possession of firearms, see our page on the Minimum Age to Purchase and Possess Firearms.)
• Has been found by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority to be a danger to self or others, or to “lack[] the mental capacity to contract or manage [their] own affairs,” as a result of their mental condition or illness (This prohibition also expressly applies when a person has been found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty of a crime due to mental incapacity)¹⁶
• Has been involuntarily committed to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority. (This prohibition does not apply when a person is admitted for treatment voluntarily or when a person is only hospitalized for short-term observation without longer-term commitment or court-ordered treatment.)¹⁷
• Is unlawfully in the United States or has been admitted to the US under a nonimmigrant visa
• Has been dishonorably discharged from the US Armed Forces
• Has renounced their US citizenship
• Is subject to an active court order restraining them from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner, their child, or a child of a partner, or from engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child
• Has been convicted of a misdemeanor offense of domestic violence¹⁸ (For more detailed information on firearm restrictions—and gaps—related to domestic violence, see our summary on Domestic Violence and Firearms).

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Summary of State Law

Misdemeanor Convictions

Alcohol Addiction and Offenses

Juvenile Offenses

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Gun violence is a complex problem, and while there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, we must act. Our reports bring you the latest cutting-edge research and analysis about strategies to end our country’s gun violence crisis at every level.

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Disarming People who Become Prohibited from Accessing Firearms

Risk-Based Removal Laws

Key Legislative Elements

• At a minimum, firearm eligibility standards are at least as extensive as federal law, to allow state and local resources to assist in implementation and enforcement.
• Access to firearms is restricted for at least a temporary period after a person has been convicted of violent, firearm-related, and other serious felonies and misdemeanors, including domestic violence offenses and hate crimes.
• States should prohibit gun access for people convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes and also expand hate crime definitions to include all protected groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
• Access to firearms is restricted after a person has been found to pose a significant risk of harm to themselves or others, including when individuals have been found to be severely cognitively impaired as a result of their mental condition or ordered to receive mental health treatment.
• A procedure exists to allow law enforcement officials and a person’s family or household members to petition courts for an extreme risk protection order, which temporarily suspends a person’s access to firearms if a court has determined they pose a significant risk of harming themselves or others.
• Access to firearms is restricted for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders and other civil and criminal court orders issued for the protection of named parties or the public from acts of violence, including orders protecting witnesses against threats and intimidation.⁸⁷
• Access to at least some firearms is restricted for people under the age of 21.⁸⁸
• Selling or transferring a firearm to a person who is ineligible to possess firearms is unlawful.⁸⁹
• A state agency identifies individuals who have become ineligible to possess firearms and state law provides standard procedures to verify that such individuals have relinquished any firearms in their possession.

1. Garen J. Wintemute et al., “Prior Misdemeanor Convictions as a Risk Factor for Later Violent and Firearm-related Criminal Activity Among Authorized Purchasers of Handguns,” JAMA 280, no. 24 (1998): 2083–2087.[↩]
2. Michael Siegel et al., “The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide and Suicide Deaths in the USA, 1991–2016: a Panel Study,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 34 (2019): 2021–2028.[↩]
3. April M. Zeoli et al., “Analysis of the Strength of Legal Firearms Restrictions for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Their Association with Intimate Partner Homicide,” American Journal of Epidemiology 187, no. 11 (2018).[↩]
4. Giffords Law Center analysis of FBI UCR Hate Crime Data, Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime Data Explorer,” last accessed May 17, 2022, https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime.[↩]
5. Madeline Masucci and Lynn Langton, “Hate Crime Victimization, 2004-2015,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2017, https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcv0415.pdf.[↩]
6. Jack Levin and Jack McDevitt, Hate Crimes Revisited: America’s War on Those Who Are Different, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002).[↩]
7. Charles C. Branas, SeungHoon Han, and Douglas J. Wiebe, “Alcohol Use and Firearm Violence,” Epidemiologic Reviews 38, no. 1 (2016): 32–45; Joseph B. Kuhns et al., “The Prevalence of Alcohol-involved Homicide Offending: A Meta-analytic Review,” Homicide Studies 18, no. 3 (2014): 251–270.[↩]
8. Garen J. Wintemute et al., “Firearms, Alcohol and Crime: Convictions for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and Other Alcohol-related Crimes and Risk for Future Criminal Activity Among Authorized Purchasers of Handguns,” Injury Prevention 24, no. 1 (2018): 68–72.[↩]
9. William E. Copeland et al.,. “Adult Criminal Outcomes of Juvenile Justice Involvement,” Psychological Medicine 53, no. 8 (2023): 3711–3718.[↩]
10. Jeffrey W. Swanson et al., “Gun Violence Among Young Adults with a Juvenile Crime Record in North Carolina: Implications for Firearm Restrictions Based on Age and Risk,” Preventive Medicine 165 (2022).[↩]
11. U.S.C. 921(a)(20)(A).[↩]
12. Federal law prohibits firearm access by people who have been convicted of, or who are under indictment for, a “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Somewhat confusingly, however, federal law’s definition of this term expressly does not include: 1) any federal or state offenses pertaining to antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade, or other similar offenses relating to the regulation of business practices, or 2) any State offense classified by the laws of the state as a misdemeanor and punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). The term also does not apply in certain situations where a person has had their eligibility to possess firearms restored by a court or other authority. Id.[↩]
13. This term is defined in federal law as “any person who has fled from any State to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceeding.” Under federal regulations, the term also includes “any person who knows that misdemeanor or felony charges are pending against [them] and who leaves the State of prosecution.” 18 USC § 922(y)(1); 27 CFR § 478.11.[↩]
14. Federal regulation defines this term, in part, to mean:
    “A person who uses a controlled substance and has lost the power of self-control with reference to the use of controlled substance; and any person who is a current user of a controlled substance in a manner other than as prescribed by a licensed physician. . . An inference of current use may be drawn from evidence of a recent use or possession of a controlled substance or a pattern of use or possession that reasonably covers the present time, e.g., a conviction for use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year; multiple arrests for such offenses within the past 5 years if the most recent arrest occurred within the past year; or persons found through a drug test to use a controlled substance unlawfully, provided that the test was administered within the past year.” 27 C.F.R. § 478.11.[↩]
15. See Wilson v. Lynch, 835 F.3d 1083 (9th Cir. 2016); Arthur Herbert, “Open Letter to all Federal Firearms Licensees,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, September 21, 2011, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/all-ffls-sept2011-open-letter-marijuana-medicinal-purposes/download.[↩]
16. Federal law, enacted in 1968, still uses archaic and offensive terminology to prohibit firearm access by people who have been “adjudicated as a mental defective.”
    Federal regulations define that term to mean:
    (a) A determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease
    (1) Is a danger to himself or to others; or
    (2) Lacks the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs.Federal regulation also expressly clarifies that this firearm prohibition applies to:
    (1) A finding of insanity by a court in a criminal case; and
    (2) Those persons found incompetent to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility pursuant to [specified articles] of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. 27 CFR § 478.11.[↩]
17. Federal law generally prohibits firearm access by people who have previously been “committed to a mental institution.” Federal regulations define this term as:
    “A formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority. The term includes a commitment to a mental institution involuntarily. The term includes commitment for mental defectiveness or mental illness. It also includes commitments for other reasons, such as for drug use. The term does not include a person in a mental institution for observation or a voluntary admission to a mental institution.” 27 C.F.R. § 478.11.[↩]
18. 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1), (d), (x)(1).[↩]
19. Pub. L. No. 117-159, 136 Stat. 1313, 1322.[↩]
20. 18 U.S.C. § 922(d)(4).[↩]
21. 13 V.S.A. §§ 4017, 5301.[↩]
22. See e.g., Minn. Stat. § 624.713, subd. 1(11); Or. Rev. Stat. §166.470; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-7; Cal. Penal Code § 29805.[↩]
23. A “Yes” is given below for any state that prohibits gun purchase or possession by a person convicted of a violent or gun-related misdemeanor that would not prohibit them under federal law.[↩]
24. This table does not include state laws that only prohibit sales to intoxicated persons.[↩]
25. Misdemeanor “violent offenses,” including third-degree assault, criminally negligent homicide, and elder abuse. Ala. Code § 13A-11-72(a)(referencing Ala. Code § 12-25-32(15).[↩]
26. Ala. Code § 13A-11-72[↩]
27. Alaska § 11.61.200.[↩]
28. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 8-341(R).[↩]
29. Assault and battery, negligent discharge of a firearm, brandishing a weapon, hate crimes, misuse of and threats involving firearms, safe storage violations, and firearm possession in certain sensitive areas. Cal. Penal Code § 29805.[↩]
30. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 8103(e)(1).[↩]
31. Cal. Penal Code § 29820.[↩]
32. Assault, sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, child abuse, protective order violation, crime against an at-risk person, harassment, bias-motivated crime, cruelty to animals, possession of an illegal weapon, and juvenile possession. Colo. Rev. Stat § 24-33.5-424(3)(b.3).[↩]
33. Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 18-12-108(1),(3); 24-4.1-302(1).[↩]
34. Specified misdemeanors involving violence or misuse of firearms, including: criminally negligent homicide, assault, threatening, reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint, and rioting. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-217(a).[↩]
35. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-217.[↩]
36. Assault in the 3rd degree. Del. Code § 1448(a)(1). See Kipp v. State, 704 A.2d 839, 1998 Del. LEXIS 29 (Del. 1998)(holding “Assault in the third degree is a misdemeanor crime of violence involving physical injury to another.”).[↩]
37. Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, § 1448.[↩]
38. Assault, threat of violence, safe storage violations, and stalking. D.C. Code § 7–2502.03(a)(4)(B),(E)(referencing §§ 7-2507.02, 22-404, 22-407); DC Code § 22-4503.[↩]
39. D.C. Code § 7–2502.03.[↩]
40. Fla. Stat. § 790.23.[↩]
41. Reckless endangering in the second degree, terroristic threatening in the second degree, sexual assault in the fourth degree, Endangering the welfare of a minor in the second degree, Endangering the welfare of an incompetent person, harassment, and negligent firearm storage. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. §134-7(b)(referencing “crime of violence” as defined in § 134-1).[↩]
42. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134-7(c)(1).[↩]
43. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134-7(d).[↩]
44. Battery, assault, or aggravated assault involving a firearm. 430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 65/4(a)(2)(viii). See also 730 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/5-6-3 (Persons subject to probation and/or conditional discharge for a misdemeanor involving the intentional or knowing infliction of bodily harm or threat of such must refrain from possessing a firearm).[↩]
45. 430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 65/8.[↩]
46. Ind. Code § 35-47-4-1.[↩]
47. Ind. Code Ann. § 35-47-4-9.[↩]
48. Iowa Code § 724.26(1).[↩]
49. Kan. Stat. § 21-6301(9),(13).[↩]
50. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6304.[↩]
51. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 527.040 (Prohibition includes those convicted of a felony offense as a “youthful offender.”).[↩]
52. Me. Stat., 15 § 393.[↩]
53. Assault in the second degree. Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety §§ 5-133(c)(1)(i), 5-206(a)(1).[↩]
54. Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety §§ 5-133(b)(5), 5-134(b)(6).[↩]
55. Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety § 5-133(b)(13).[↩]
56. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 129B(1)(iii). See also Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 131(d)(iii).[↩]
57. Mass. General Laws c.140 § 129B.[↩]
58. Crimes committed for the benefit of a gang (§ 609.229), assaults motivated by bias (§ 609.2231, subdivision 4), false imprisonment (§ 609.255), neglect or endangerment of a child (§ 609.378), burglary in the fourth degree (§ 609.582, subdivision 4), setting a spring gun (§ 609.665), riot (§ 609.71), and harassment or stalking (§ 609.749). Minn. Stat. § 624.713, subd. 1(11).[↩]
59. Minn. Stat. §§ 624.713, subd. 1(2); 242.31, subd. 2a; 260B.245, subd. 1(b); See Minn. Stat. § 609.165, subd. 1b.[↩]
60. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 571.070.[↩]
61. Neb. Rev. § Stat. 28-1204.05.[↩]
62. Restricts firearm permits from all persons convicted of “any crime.” N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:58-3. See also N.J. Stat. § 2C:39-7 (prohibits persons convicted of misdemeanor extortion).Yes((N.J. Stat. § 2C:58-3.[↩]
63. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:58-3(7).[↩]
64. Possession of a firearm requires license. N.Y. Penal Law § 400.00(1). Person ineligible for license if convicted of any “serious offenses,” including misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon, criminal trespass, child endangerment, sexual misconduct and abuse, and possession of certain controlled substances. N.Y. Penal Law § 265.00.[↩]
65. All class A violent misdemeanors involving a firearm. N.D. Cent. Code § 62.1-02-01.[↩]
66. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 12.1-32-02(9), 12.1-32-07.1.[↩]
67. Ohio Rev. Code § 2923.13(A)(4).[↩]
68. Ohio Rev. Code § 2923.13(A)(2-3).[↩]
69. Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 1289.12.[↩]
70. Assault, strangulation, menacing, reckless endangerment, stalking, or bias crime in the second degree. Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 166.255(1)(c), 166.470(1)(g).[↩]
71. Prohibits those “discharged from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for more than four years if, while a minor, the person was found to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for having committed an act that, if committed by an adult, would constitute a felony or a misdemeanor involving violence.” Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.291.[↩]
72. Unlawful possession, unlawful manufacture, possession on school property, involuntary manslaughter, harassment, unlawful restraint, luring a child, arson, false reports, impersonation, intimidation, retaliation, escape, corruption of minors. 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6105.[↩]
73. 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 6105.[↩]
74. 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 6105(c)(7),(8).[↩]
75. S.C. Code § 16-23-30.[↩]
76. Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-17-1307, 39-17-1316.[↩]
77. Tenn. Code Ann. § 37-1-189(a).[↩]
78. Tex. Gov’t Code § 411.172.[↩]
79. Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-503(b)(iii),(c).[↩]
80. Sexual assault and aggravated assault. Vt. Stat. Ann., tit. 13, § 4017 (as defined in § 5301.[↩]
81. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-308.2(A),(C).[↩]
82. People with two or more convictions in 7 years for certain DUI offenses are prohibited. Wash. Rev. Code Ann. § 9.41.040(2)(a)(i)(D).[↩]
83. Wash. Rev. Code § 9.41.040.[↩]
84. W. Va. Code § 61-7-7(a)(2).[↩]
85. Wis. Stat. §§ 51.20.[↩]
86. Wis. Stat. § 941.29(1m).[↩]
87. Additional information about laws governing domestic violence-related prohibitions is contained in our summary on Domestic Violence and Firearms.[↩]
88. Additional information about laws governing minimum age to purchase and possess firearms is contained in our summary on the Minimum Age to Purchaser and Possess Firearms.[↩]
89. Additional information about laws limiting sales to ineligible individuals is contained in our summary on Trafficking & Straw Purchasing.[↩]