A felony conviction in California results in a lifetime prohibition on owning, possessing, or purchasing any firearm. Under Penal Code 29800, that prohibition is permanent under state law. Federal law, specifically 18 U.S.C. 922(g), adds a separate and independent lifetime ban at the federal level for anyone with a felony conviction. The two systems run parallel to each other, and resolving one does not resolve the other.
Our work as a criminal defense attorney in San Bernardino includes post-conviction relief, and questions about firearm rights restoration come up often from clients who have been out of the system for years and want to understand what their options actually are. The honest answer is that pathways exist, but each one is limited in specific ways, and the federal prohibition is the harder wall to get past.
Why State and Federal Prohibitions Must Be Addressed Separately
This is the most important thing to understand before pursuing any relief option: clearing your record under California law does not automatically restore your firearm rights under federal law. The two systems are independent. Federal law does not recognize California expungements as restoring firearm rights for firearms purposes. It does not recognize California wobbler reductions to misdemeanors as fully resolving the federal prohibition in most cases either.
Many people pursue California post-conviction relief, receive an expungement, and then assume both the state and federal prohibitions are resolved. In most situations, they are not. Anyone working through this issue needs to evaluate what each available pathway accomplishes specifically under state law, and separately, what it does or does not accomplish under federal law. Understanding that distinction is the starting point for making an informed decision about which route to pursue.
Expungement Under PC 1203.4 and What It Does Not Do for Firearms
Expungement under PC 1203.4 is useful for many things. It dismisses the conviction for most employment background check purposes, and it allows most people to truthfully answer "no" on private sector job applications that ask about criminal convictions. For California firearm law specifically, expungement alone does not restore firearm rights when the underlying conviction was a felony. The conviction is dismissed, but the prohibiting status under California law typically remains unless you take additional steps.
Expungement does matter here, though, because it is generally the prerequisite for the next step. After a successful expungement, a person with a qualifying felony may be able to petition under PC 17(b) to have the conviction redesignated as a misdemeanor. That reduction, if granted, can remove the California-level prohibition for certain offenses where the misdemeanor version does not independently carry its own prohibition.
Wobbler Reductions Under PC 17(b)
For felony convictions on wobbler offenses, meaning charges that could have been filed as either a felony or a misdemeanor, the court has discretion to redesignate the conviction as a misdemeanor after expungement is granted. A successful PC 17(b) reduction changes the character of the conviction at the state level. For offenses where the resulting misdemeanor does not carry its own firearm prohibition, the California-level ban on firearms possession can be removed.
The caveat is important. Domestic violence misdemeanors carry their own prohibition under both California law and the federal Lautenberg Amendment, regardless of how they started or how they were reduced. The specific statute matters, and the analysis has to be done conviction by conviction. For clients in San Bernardino, Fontana, Redlands, and across the Inland Empire asking whether this option applies to their situation, we work through the specific offense, the original charging statute, and what the reduction would actually accomplish before filing anything.
Tammy Higgins spent 16 years as a San Bernardino County public defender before opening this firm. She has also tried more than 100 jury trials, including the most serious felony cases in California. That background with how convictions are built, sentenced, and later challenged shapes the post-conviction analysis directly.
Certificate of Rehabilitation and the Governor's Pardon
A Certificate of Rehabilitation is a court order finding that a person has sufficiently demonstrated rehabilitation following a conviction. In California, it also functions as an automatic application for a Governor's Pardon. The waiting period required before applying depends on the offense type and can be several years from the date of release.
A Governor's Pardon, if granted, can restore firearm rights under California law. It does not restore federal rights unless the pardon specifically addresses the federal firearms disability, which California pardons typically do not. The process is lengthy, the outcome is not guaranteed, and the federal limitation still applies in most cases after it is received. For people with serious felony convictions who have been out of the system for many years and have a documented track record of rehabilitation, it is one of the more substantive options available. But it should be pursued with a realistic understanding of what it does and does not accomplish.
How Resentencing Fits Into the Picture
For people currently serving a sentence, or who received a sentence under laws that have since changed, resentencing under AB 600 through PC 1172.1 may affect the underlying prohibition. If the underlying conviction is modified as part of the resentencing to an offense that does not carry a firearm prohibition, the basis for the ban changes along with the conviction.
We also evaluate whether the Racial Justice Act under AB 256 applies to any given case. A successful Racial Justice Act petition can vacate or modify a conviction, and what happens to the firearms prohibition depends on what the conviction becomes after the petition is resolved. Every case requires individual review. The path to restoring any rights, where one exists at all, depends on the specific offense, the original sentence, and the way California and federal law interact for that particular conviction. If you are in San Bernardino County or anywhere in the areas we serve and want a straight answer about your options, that review is the right place to start.
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