Restoring Your Gun Rights in Florida: How to Get Firearm Rights Back

If you have a felony conviction and want your firearm rights back in Florida, understand this before anything else: there are two separate locks, not one. Florida can restore your rights under state law, but federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)) is a completely separate system with its own bar — Florida-only relief does not automatically open the federal lock. Florida offers exactly three restoration paths, all run through executive clemency granted by the Governor and Cabinet sitting as the Board of Executive Clemency: a Full Pardon (restores everything, including firearms, after a 10-year wait), a Specific Authority to Own, Possess, or Use Firearms (restores only firearm rights, after an 8-year wait), and Restoration of Civil Rights (restores voting, jury service, and public office — but explicitly not firearm rights). Florida has no automatic restoration for felons, no expungement of a conviction, and no separate court petition outside of clemency.

Who loses firearm rights in Florida

• Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)): anyone convicted anywhere in the U.S. of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison is federally barred from possessing a firearm or ammunition.
• Federal misdemeanor domestic-violence bar (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), the Lautenberg Amendment): a qualifying misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction also triggers a federal ban, even without a felony.
• Florida law (Fla. Stat. § 790.23): makes it a second-degree felony for a person convicted of a felony to own, possess, or control a firearm, ammunition, or an electric weapon. Florida courts have held that a "withhold of adjudication" — common in Florida plea deals — generally does not count as a conviction for § 790.23. That is a state-law rule only; it does not automatically decide how the same case counts under federal law. Don't assume a withhold case is federally clean without confirming it specifically.

Florida also restricts firearms for people under active domestic-violence injunctions, similar to federal law. Overall, Florida's felony gun ban tracks the federal ban closely — the real difference isn't who is banned, but how narrow and slow Florida's path back is.

The two locks: why state relief may not fix your federal problem

Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20)) only stops treating a person as "convicted" for firearms purposes if the state's relief — expungement, set-aside, pardon, or restoration of civil rights — restores civil rights and does not expressly keep a firearms restriction. Florida's Restoration of Civil Rights explicitly reserves firearm rights, so it plainly does not lift the federal bar. Even a Florida Full Pardon or Firearm Authority grant, designed to restore firearms, should still be confirmed against current federal guidance before you buy or possess anything.

There's a second, separate problem if your disqualifying conviction is federal (or from military court or another state): Florida's clemency board will not even consider restoring firearm rights for those. Under Beecham v. United States, 511 U.S. 368 (1994), a federal conviction cannot be fixed through a state's restoration process — only federal relief counts. The federal remedy is 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) relief. For decades this was effectively a dead letter: starting in 1992, Congress blocked funding for the ATF to process these applications, so no one could actually use it. That changed recently. Beginning in 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice moved this relief out of the ATF and to the Attorney General (through the Office of the Pardon Attorney) under a new process, and DOJ has since begun granting some applications. This federal path is new, highly discretionary, and still taking shape, so don't assume either that it's impossible or that it's easy — check the current DOJ process and talk to a lawyer who handles federal firearms disabilities. For a federal conviction, that is a harder, different problem than a Florida state conviction.

How Florida actually restores firearm rights

Florida has no automatic restoration, no court petition process, and no expungement of a completed felony conviction (Florida's expunction statutes apply to arrests and non-convictions, not convictions). The only door is the Office of Executive Clemency, acting for the Governor and Cabinet under its current Rules of Executive Clemency:

• Full Pardon — restores all rights, including firearms. Eligible 10 years after completing every term of sentence.
• Specific Authority to Own, Possess, or Use Firearms — restores only the firearm right. Eligible 8 years after completing every term of sentence.
• Restoration of Civil Rights — restores voting, jury service, and public office, but by its own terms does not restore firearm rights. Applying for this alone will not fix a firearms problem.

For both the Full Pardon and Firearm Authority, Florida's rules are explicit that only Florida convictions are eligible — anyone convicted in federal court, military court, or another state cannot get Florida firearm authority or a pardon for that conviction.

Waiting period and eligibility

Under Florida's current clemency rules, the wait is 8 years after completing every term of sentence to apply for Firearm Authority, and 10 years for a Full Pardon. You generally can't apply with outstanding detainers, pending charges, unpaid victim restitution anywhere in your record, or more than $1,000 in outstanding pecuniary penalties or liabilities from any criminal conviction or traffic infraction. These are the rules as of this writing; clemency rules have changed before and can change again, so confirm the current version with the Office of Executive Clemency.

Florida does not publish a blanket list of offenses that can never be restored — every application goes to a Board with full discretion to deny it. That said, murder and felony sexual offenses are excluded even from the streamlined, no-hearing path for the more limited Restoration of Civil Rights and must go through a full discretionary hearing — a strong signal, not a guarantee, that pardon or firearm-authority requests resting on those convictions face the steepest odds. Don't assume any conviction is automatically restorable; ask the office directly about yours.

Steps to restore your gun rights in Florida

1. Confirm your conviction history. Get certified copies of the charging document and judgment/sentence from the clerk of court in each county involved. If any case is federal, military, or out-of-state, Florida cannot restore firearm rights for it — that needs a separate solution.
2. Pick the right application. Full Pardon if you want everything back (10-year wait); Firearm Authority if you just need firearms (8-year wait). Restoration of Civil Rights alone won't fix a firearms problem.
3. Submit the clemency application to the Office of Executive Clemency in Tallahassee with all certified court documents and any supporting references. No lawyer is required, though many applicants use one.
4. Expect an investigation — a Florida Commission on Offender Review investigator may interview you and contact references or employers.
5. Wait for a Board decision. Favorable recommendations go on the agenda for a hearing before the Governor and Cabinet; unfavorable ones can be denied without a hearing. Given the investigation and scheduling, the process commonly takes well over a year — ask the office for current expected timeframes.
6. Get the grant in writing — an executed order or certificate — before assuming anything has changed. If denied, you generally must wait a set period before reapplying; confirm the current waiting rule with the office.
7. Confirm the federal effect with a lawyer before buying or possessing a firearm. Don't assume a Florida grant automatically lifts your federal 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) bar just because it mentions firearms.

Permanent and hardest-to-restore situations

• Federal, military, and out-of-state convictions can't be fixed by Florida's clemency process at all. A federal conviction generally needs a presidential pardon or federal § 925(c) relief — a process the Justice Department revived under the Attorney General in 2025 after decades of being unavailable, so check its current status and get legal help rather than assuming it's open or closed.
• Murder and felony sexual offenses are Florida's most restrictive category — excluded from the streamlined no-hearing process and dependent entirely on Board discretion at a full hearing, where denial is common.
• Unpaid restitution anywhere in your record, outstanding detainers, or pending charges block any clemency application until resolved.

Caution: possessing, buying, or even briefly holding a firearm while you are still federally barred is a serious federal felony under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), independent of anything Florida has done for you. A Florida certificate that restores civil rights, or even one labeled a pardon, does not automatically mean the federal government agrees you're clear — confirm the federal effect of your specific paperwork with a lawyer before you go anywhere near a gun.

Practical takeaways

• Get any restoration — pardon, firearm authority, or civil rights — from Florida in writing, and keep the original document; you may need to produce it for a background check for the rest of your life.
• Never treat a completed background check or a completed gun-store purchase as proof you're legally clear — those systems don't catch every disqualification.
• If your conviction is federal, military, or from another state, Florida cannot help directly — start with a lawyer focused on federal firearms disabilities.
• Waiting periods and eligibility rules have changed before in Florida and can change again — check the current Rules of Executive Clemency and application directly with the Office of Executive Clemency before relying on any number here.

This article is general legal information about Florida and federal firearms-restoration law as of mid-2026, not legal advice for your situation — confirm current details with the Florida Office of Executive Clemency and a lawyer before applying or possessing a firearm.