Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lost his right to buy or possess firearms and ammunition on Thursday after a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments to keep a porn star quiet during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has long enjoyed strong support from the largely conservative gun rights movement, repeatedly addressing gatherings of the National Rifle Association and recently vowing to roll back firearm restrictions that the Biden administration had pushed through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Those facing federal indictments, as Trump has since last year, cannot legally buy firearms. But Trump was allowed to retain the guns he previously owned while the cases moved forward without running afoul of the law, provided he did not transport them across state lines.
With his 34 felony convictions, however, Trump is now officially a prohibited person.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 bars those convicted of crimes punishable by up to one year in prison from buying or possessing firearms or ammunition. Trump’s convictions are each punishable by sentences up to four years in prison, though he has yet to be sentenced.
Trump may avoid imprisonment and be sentenced to probation. In either case, he would remain barred from firearm possession.
Trump rarely discusses his personal use of firearms. But in a 2012 interview, he told The Washington Times that he held a concealed carry license in New York and owned two handguns — a .45-caliber H&K and a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson. Trump told French Magazine Valeurs Actuelles four years later, “I always carry a weapon on me.”
Under New York law, a felony conviction revokes a concealed carry license and the court must order the convict to give up their guns. Because the convictions were issued by a New York state court, a presidential pardon cannot expunge them.
Still, Trump may not have lost his gun rights forever. They could be restored if an appeals court were to overturn his convictions. And ongoing litigation since the conservative-tilted Supreme Court vastly expanded Second Amendment rights two years ago has raised constitutional challenges to the law barring felons from possessing firearms.