Legally owning a firearm is an important part of many North Carolinians’ lives. When your gun rights are stripped from you, it is understandable to be frustrated. A Raleigh gun rights restoration lawyer may be able to help you regain your firearm ownership privileges.
Our team at Granados Law Group is committed to assisting people across the Raleigh metropolitan area in their gun rights restoration cases.
Attorney Lindsey D. Granados has years of experience working as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. She is passionate about helping residents in our community with their legal matters and understands how charges can affect people’s lives. Ms. Granados is a highly respected attorney who was appointed to serve on the North Carolina Sentencing Policy Advisory Commission (SPAC) to address state sentencing guidelines.
Gun ownership is common across North Carolina. In 2024, 39.8% of residents reported having a firearm in the home. Gun rights can be revoked in North Carolina under many different grounds. Common factors resulting in loss of legal firearm ownership, and correlating pathways towards restoration, include the following:
In North Carolina, any felony conviction automatically revokes gun rights. To be eligible for consideration for gun rights restoration, a felon must meet the following requirements:
Petitions are submitted to the district court where you reside. For Raleigh residents, requests are filed with the Wake County Courthouse at 316 Fayetteville St, Raleigh, NC 27601. After a request, the district attorney who handled your case may contest the process. If denied, you must wait one year to reapply.
Accusations of domestic violence often involve stripping the accused’s gun rights through protective order provisions. The most common way to restore firearm ownership privileges is to challenge the order itself. Convictions for a domestic violence charge typically bar someone permanently from restoring gun rights.
Under state law, a Raleigh resident may have their gun rights revoked due to pressing mental health concerns. This may include an acquittal based on insanity, determined incapacity to take care of themselves, nonvoluntary committal to a mental health institution, or any other scenario where someone is a threat to themselves or others.
To overturn these rulings, someone must submit a request in the Wake County court system after concluding inpatient or outpatient care. The bar for proof is that someone demonstrates a preponderance of evidence that they are no longer a threat to anyone.
Navigating the process of regaining your firearm ownership privileges can be confusing. Hire a gun rights restoration lawyer to help with your case. Your Raleigh gun rights restoration attorney can provide many key services to your case, which include:
No, North Carolina does not automatically restore gun rights. A common question people have who lost their gun rights is whether the firearm privileges are automatically restored after the grounds for revocation have been resolved. In North Carolina, gun rights are not reinstated by default. You are required to submit the petition relevant to your situation to once again legally own a firearm.
In North Carolina, it is illegal for a convicted felon to own a firearm without prior authorization, and it is a Class G felony to do so. Penalties can involve fines and additional prison time, and it counts as a parole violation. The time period from conviction or completion of sentencing does not affect the level of the charge. A gun in the house, vehicle, or any space a person has reasonable control over may count as an offense.
How long your gun rights restoration case takes to resolve in North Carolina depends on the complexity of your case, whether the petition is contested, and the court backlog. Applications filed after recovery from mental health incapacitation with strong character references may resolve much quicker than a convicted felon’s case contested by the district attorney.
North Carolina state law does not legally require you to have an attorney for a gun rights restoration case. However, having experienced legal counsel can provide many benefits to your case. Small errors, missed deadlines, or ill preparation can result in automatic denial and lengthy delays. Your lawyer can help prevent common errors and strengthen your argument before your hearing.
A: No, unfortunately, there is no automatic restoration of firearm rights after an expunction was completed, and in fact, it is better to seek firearm restoration BEFORE seeking to expunge your case from the court records. If an expungement has been granted, any record of that criminal offense has been wiped off the court computer system, which makes seeking Firearm Rights Restoration Petitions a little more complicated…not impossible, but more challenging than if you had simply waited. It’s important to hire a lawyer to assist with firearm restoration when the case has already been expunged, because it creates a new layer of complexity to the process.
The legal team at Granados Law Group recognizes the difficulties you can face in restoring your gun rights. We can use our years of experience navigating the Raleigh court system to make a positive difference in regaining your firearm ownership privileges.
Reach out today to book your initial consultation. In this meeting, we can learn your story, discuss the challenges you are dealing with, and explore strategies for gun rights restoration. You may also visit our Cary offices, located on East Chatham Street.
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