It doesn’t matter if you are provided a path to what you want if you can never reach that path.
We talk about 18 U.S.C. §922(g) often. This is the prohibited person section of the US Code. It is what is used to justify form 4473.
The government is allowed to create regulations that are necessary to perform the task they are required to do by law. This is how come the NFA has a registration and background check plus all the rest of the BS that goes with purchasing an NFA item.
All of those regulations are in place to make sure that you have paid your taxes. The entire NFA is based on collecting taxes. The registration is just a byproduct of collecting taxes. The background check is just a byproduct of collecting taxes.
§922(g) states who is prohibited from possessing a firearm. This is a horrible mutation from the original version of §922(g). The original version was a restriction on FFLs from selling to a prohibited person.
A prohibited person could buy a gun from somebody else or acquire it by gift. They could still lawfully posses it.
In addition, they could manufacture a firearm and possess that. §922(g) was only a restriction on the sale of interstate commerce in firearms.
When Congress passed the original §922(g) in 1968, they also included a method to get your Second Amendment protected rights back. Under 18 U.S.C. §925(c).
—18 U.S.C. § 925(c) (2023)
This means there is a procedure to get your rights back by asking Mommy Dearest for permission.
In 1992, Congress added a rider to the appropriations bill.
— Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1993, Pub. L. No. 102-393, 106 Stat. 1729 (Oct. 6, 1992)
This has been going on for the last 33 years!
What this means is that you can apply for your rights back, but there is no money for the ATF to process those requests. So you have no mouth.
The most recent version of the rider is:
relief from Federal firearms disabilities under section 925(c) of title 18, United States Code: Provided further, That such funds shall be available to investigate and act upon applications filed by corporations for relief from Federal firearms disabilities under section 925(c) of title 18, United States Code: Provided further, That no funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to transfer the functions, missions, or activities of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to other agencies or Departments.
— Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, Pub. L. No. 118-47, 138 Stat. 460, 561 (Mar. 22, 2024)
The Department of Justice just announced that they are opening a web portal for people to apply to regain their Second Amendment protected rights. Since “main justice” is doing this, it comes under their budget and not the salaries of ATF personnel.
This is another major Trump Administration end run around a violation of our rights.