How Do I Go About Restoring My Gun Rights in New York? 

A Step-by-Step Guide.

When determining how to restore a client’s gun rights a lawyer must first understand why, with as much detail as possible, the person does not have their gun rights in the first place. 

If for example the person has a prior felony conviction, the question is what was the person convicted of?  What was the exact charge that the person was convicted of and what was the person’s sentence?  To have those details, generally the lawyer will need a Certificate of Disposition from the Court.  This document which can be obtained from most Courts in New York for a $10 fee will tell the lawyer the details of the conviction that the lawyer will need to determine exactly how to go about restoring a person’s rights. 

Very often in New York, a person can lose their gun rights after conviction for a “Serious Offense”. These are misdemeanors in New York that cause a person to lose their gun rights. However, the same principle applies. A certificate of Disposition must be obtained from the Court so that the attorney has all of the relevant details about the conviction. 

There are cases where the conviction is so old that a person does not remember where the conviction came from or what Court to go to obtain a Certificate of Disposition. In those cases a person may obtain their own criminal history or “rap sheet” by visiting the Division of Criminal Justices Services website and following the directions. 

In some cases a person could lose their gun rights based upon a mental hospital or psychiatric ward commitment.  In those cases it will be necessary to obtain the medical records. 

For a person with one felony conviction or a conviction for a serious offense that never was sentenced to a term in State Prison and wishes to restore their gun rights an application will have to be made for a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities to the Court or Courts of conviction.  Recently, many Courts have been granting the Certificate of Relief but specifically excluding gun rights restoration. So, the application should be complete and detailed.  Many Courts in New York are reluctant to restore the gun rights of individuals who have lost their rights. 

For a person that has a prior felony but was sentenced to a term in State Prison, they will need to obtain a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). DOCCS is very bad about restoring gun rights and rarely does so. In addition, DOCCS takes the position that they cannot restore gun rights for a violent felony. 

If a person has two or more felonies they will need a Certificate of Good Conduct from DOCCS. Again, as with a person convicted of one Felony, DOCCS is very reluctant to restore the gun rights of a person convicted of two felonies and they will rarely do it.   

Obtaining the Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities or Certificate of Good Conduct can take a long time, some times as much as a year or more. 

Remember that just getting a conviction sealed does not restore any gun rights and to the contrary may make it harder to restore gun rights after the case is sealed.    

Also, if the Certificate of Relief is signed with box A or B your gun rights should be restored. The certificate does not need to enumerate that your gun rights were restored, specifically. However, if box C is checked it is likely that your firearms rights were not restored. 

Very often even after a person obtains a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities the NICS check may still result in either a delay or a deny. In that case, the person may have to appeal the NICS denial and send in the Certificate of Relief to NICS. 

Lastly, no person can own, handle or possess a handgun in New York without first obtaining a license to possess a handgun and no person may purchase a semi-automatic rifle in New York without first obtaining a semi-automatic rifle license.  Even if a person’s gun rights are restored Courts may still deny the applicant a gun license because current New York law grants Courts wide discretion to deny applicants for gun licenses based upon the Judges evaluation of their moral character. Judges often used dismissed arrests, convictions for non-criminal charges and cases for which a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities were issued to deny gun license applicants. So even restoring your gun rights does not necessarily mean that you will be able to obtain a gun license.