Gun Control Act of 1968 and the federal firearm bans
By Desk Technologies, Inc. · Published · Updated · 8 minute read
The Gun Control Act of 1968 created the modern federal list of firearm prohibitions, and later laws changed who is covered. This article follows those public statutes, including 18 U.S.C. 922(g), and does not say whether any person is prohibited. It is history, not an application guide.
Not a law firm; not legal advice. This article describes public sources. It is not advice about any person's case, and no outcome is guaranteed.
What the Gun Control Act of 1968 still matters for
The Gun Control Act of 1968 is why a reader starts with chapter 44 of title 18, not with a state pamphlet. Use this table to find the public law, then read the current code section before relying on a summary.
| Law | Date in the public law | What to open |
|---|---|---|
| Gun Control Act, Public Law 90-618 | Enacted October 22, 1968; chapter effective December 16, 1968 | Statute PDF |
| Firearms Owners' Protection Act, Public Law 99-308 | May 19, 1986 | Statute PDF |
| Current ban | As amended | 18 U.S.C. 922 |
Which code section applies?
Start with 18 U.S.C. 922(g) for the list of statuses, 18 U.S.C. 921 for the definitions, and 18 U.S.C. 925(c) for the application. A prohibited-person category from 1968 and the misdemeanor domestic-violence category from 1996 are both in the current code. Matching a person to a subsection is legal work. The Lautenberg amendment gun rights article stays on the 1996 category.
What to ask an attorney
Ask which subsection of 922(g), if any, a particular conviction or status is said to meet, and whether a later amendment changed the category. Do not treat this history as that answer.
Federal firearms law is a stack of statutes. People often point at "the Gun Control Act" as if it were one unchanged page. The 1968 act is the base. Later Congresses added, moved, and narrowed pieces of it. Anyone reading a restoration question has to know which layer they are looking at. This article stays with the public laws and the code. It does not apply them to a record.
Before 1968, in one paragraph
The National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 were earlier federal statutes about certain weapons and about licensed dealers. They are not the same statute as the Gun Control Act. The Gun Control Act's own text says it does not modify the National Firearms Act. This article does not retell those earlier acts in detail, because the prohibited-person categories people ask about today are the ones now collected in 18 U.S.C. 922(g), which descend from the 1968 scheme as later amended.
The Gun Control Act of 1968
On October 22, 1968, Congress enacted Public Law 90-618. The first section says the act may be cited as the "Gun Control Act of 1968." The bill was H.R. 17735. Title I is headed "State Firearms Control Assistance." Section 101 states a congressional finding and a declaration. It says it is not the purpose of the title to place any undue or unnecessary federal restrictions or burdens on law-abiding citizens in connection with acquisition, possession, or use of firearms for lawful purposes such as hunting, trapshooting, target shooting, or personal protection, and that the title is not intended to discourage private ownership for lawful purposes.
Section 102 rewrote chapter 44 of title 18. That chapter is the licensing and commerce scheme: who may engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in firearms, what records they keep, and who may not receive or possess firearms. The administration of the chapter was vested in the Secretary of the Treasury. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later moved to the Department of Justice. The 1968 act itself names the Secretary.
Section 105 of the act says that, except as provided in a subsection, the provisions of chapter 44 as amended by section 102 take effect on December 16, 1968. The enactment date and the effective date are not the same day. Citing "October 22" as the day every prohibition started is not what the act says.
What section 922(g) covers now
The current prohibition list is 18 U.S.C. 922(g). It is unlawful for any person in one of the listed categories to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition, or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. The categories include:
- a person convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year
- a fugitive from justice
- a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance
- a person who has been adjudicated as a mental defective or who has been committed to a mental institution
- a person illegally or unlawfully in the United States, and certain nonimmigrant visa holders
- a person discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions
- a person who, having been a citizen, has renounced United States citizenship
- a person subject to a court order that meets the domestic-violence restraining-order tests in the statute
- a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence
That list is a summary of the statute's categories, not a checklist for a person. Definitions in 18 U.S.C. 921 control several of the phrases, including "crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" and "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence." A state label such as "misdemeanor" does not, by itself, answer the federal question. Section 921(a)(20) says what counts.
Section 922(d) is the companion rule for transfer. It restricts selling or disposing of a firearm to a person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the person falls in a prohibited category. Restoration questions are usually about possession, but the transfer rule is part of the same chapter.
The Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986
Public Law 99-308, the Firearms Owners' Protection Act, was enacted May 19, 1986. Its short title is in section 1. Congress found that additional legislation was required to correct existing firearms statutes and to reaffirm the intent stated in section 101 of the Gun Control Act. The act amended section 921 and other parts of chapter 44. One structural point matters for readers of today's code: the prohibited-person provisions were reorganized. Someone comparing a 1968 pamphlet to the current section 922(g) will not find the same numbering. The United States Code is the place to read the current ban. The 1986 public law is the place to see that Congress reworked the chapter rather than leaving 1968 untouched.
The 1986 act is also why casual histories sometimes say "FOPA restored rights." The act changed several rules, including rules about interstate transport of unloaded firearms. It did not enact a general restoration of firearms rights for every person with a conviction. Restoration of a federal firearms disability remained the subject of 18 U.S.C. 925(c), which is a separate article in this series.
Domestic violence amendments in the 1990s
In 1994, Congress added a firearms prohibition tied to certain domestic-violence restraining orders. That category is now section 922(g)(8). It is not the same as the later misdemeanor-conviction ban. A restraining-order prohibition depends on an order that meets the statute's tests, including a hearing and either a finding of a credible threat or an explicit prohibition on the use of physical force. United States v. Rahimi, decided in 2024, addressed a Second Amendment challenge to section 922(g)(8). The court-cases article describes that holding. It is a temporary disarmament holding, not a restoration program.
On September 30, 1996, Public Law 104-208, the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, amended the Gun Control Act. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms described the change in a temporary rule: the new law makes it unlawful for a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence to ship, transport, receive, or possess firearms and ammunition, and it restricts transfers to such a person. That category is now section 922(g)(9). It is often called the Lautenberg Amendment. The Lautenberg article covers the definition and the statutory exceptions. The amendment took effect on enactment, September 30, 1996, as the temporary rule states.
Why the history matters for a restoration question
A restoration process removes or narrows a disability that a statute created. It does not rewrite the history. A person reading section 925(c) is asking the Attorney General for relief from disabilities imposed by federal firearms laws. The disabilities are the ones in the current code. The 1968 act, the 1986 reorganization, and the 1996 domestic-violence amendment explain why the list looks the way it does. They do not, by themselves, say that any person is inside or outside a category.
The Department of Justice's 2026 rule on applications for relief says, in 28 CFR 107.30, that relief does not extend to a separate state-law prohibition. Federal history and state history are different stacks. This series does not publish a state's statute unless a cited government page states it.
The timeline puts these dates in order next to the relief statute, the 1992 funding restriction, and the 2026 rule. The overview defines the words pardon, expungement, set-aside, and relief so they are not used as synonyms. Rights Restore can help organize papers for a packet. It does not decide whether a prohibition applies. The beta page describes that limited role.
Questions
What did the Gun Control Act of 1968 do?
Public Law 90-618, enacted October 22, 1968, is titled the Gun Control Act of 1968. It rewrote chapter 44 of title 18 of the United States Code to regulate interstate commerce in firearms, including licensing and categories of people who may not receive or possess firearms. Most of that rewritten chapter took effect on December 16, 1968, with exceptions stated in the act.
Is today's 18 U.S.C. 922(g) the same text Congress passed in 1968?
No. Section 922 has been amended many times. The Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986, Public Law 99-308, reworked important parts of chapter 44, and the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment added the misdemeanor domestic-violence category now in section 922(g)(9). The current text is the United States Code, not the 1968 statute standing alone.
Does a federal prohibition also decide state law?
No. A federal prohibition is a federal status. A state may have its own rules about who may possess a firearm. A later federal grant of relief, if one is issued under 28 CFR 107.30, does not remove a separate state prohibition.