What a conviction does to firearm rights — and what clearing it does not.

Penal Code section 1203.4 says it in terms. Dismissal under that section "does not permit a person to own, possess, or have custody or control of a firearm" and does not prevent a conviction under the felon-in-possession statute.

Proposition 47 has the same carve-out: a felony reduced to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 1170.18 is a misdemeanor "for all purposes" except firearms.

And there is a trap that catches people who did everything right: under Penal Code section 29900, a prior conviction still counts as the predicate for a firearm charge even if it was dismissed. Relief that erases a conviction for employment purposes does not erase it for gun purposes.

Any felony conviction — in California, in another state, or under federal law — is a lifetime bar in California.

So is a conviction for a "violent offense" on the list in Penal Code section 29905, and so are two or more convictions for brandishing a firearm under Penal Code section 417(a)(2).

Here is what surprises people: a handful of misdemeanors carry lifetime bans too. Assault with a firearm (section 245(a)(2)); assault with a machine gun, assault weapon, or .50 BMG rifle (section 245(a)(3)); shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied building or vehicle (section 246); brandishing a firearm in the presence of a peace officer (section 417(c)); and — the one that catches the most people — corporal injury on a spouse or partner under section 273.5, if the conviction is on or after January 1, 2019.

Federal law adds its own lifetime bar that California relief cannot touch: under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), any misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is a lifetime federal firearm disqualification. A California ten-year clock running out does not help someone in that position.

Penal Code section 29805 imposes a ten-year ban following a misdemeanor conviction for a long list of offenses. The list is longer than most people expect, and includes offenses no one thinks of as gun crimes.

Among them: simple assault (section 240/241) and simple battery (section 242/243); assault with a deadly weapon or by force likely to produce great bodily injury (sections 245(a)(1) and (a)(4)); criminal threats (section 422); stalking (section 646.9); sexual battery (section 243.4); violating a protective or restraining order (section 273.6); brandishing (section 417); grossly negligent discharge of a firearm (section 246.3); intimidating a witness (section 136.1); threatening a public official (sections 71 and 76); interference with civil rights (section 422.6); firearm in a school zone (section 626.9); grand theft of a firearm (section 487); and possession of a machine gun (section 32625).

The Legislature has been adding to this list steadily, and the additions apply only to convictions on or after their operative dates — which makes the date of your conviction a legal fact, not a detail. Child endangerment (section 273a) and elder abuse (section 368(b), (c)) were added for convictions on or after January 1, 2023; unlawful carry offenses (sections 25400, 25850, 26350, 26400) for convictions on or after January 1, 2024; animal cruelty (section 597(a)) on or after January 1, 2025; and a further group — including assault weapon possession (section 30605) and short-barreled rifles and shotguns (section 33215) — on or after January 1, 2026.

A firearm bar can attach without any conviction. Court orders do it: a domestic violence restraining order, a civil harassment order, a workplace or school violence order, a criminal protective order, an elder abuse order, or a Gun Violence Restraining Order each prohibits firearms for as long as the order is in effect — and possessing a firearm in violation of a GVRO adds five years of its own.

Mental health findings do it: a court finding of danger to others, of not guilty by reason of insanity, or of incompetence to stand trial produces a lifetime bar; certain holds, certifications, and conservatorships produce five-year or period-limited bars.

Juvenile adjudications do it: a ward of the juvenile court adjudicated for certain offenses is prohibited until age 30.

And a probation condition can do it: where the court orders no firearms as a term of probation, that bar lasts for the probation period.

For a wobbler, the meaningful step is usually a reduction to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17(b) — because it removes the felony, and with it the lifetime felony bar. But it only helps if the resulting misdemeanor is not itself on the section 29805 list, which is exactly the analysis that has to be done offense by offense. Reducing an assault-with-a-firearm felony, for example, lands on a misdemeanor that is *also* a lifetime bar.

For a felony that cannot be reduced, the path runs through a Certificate of Rehabilitation and a Governor's pardon — a longer road, and one with its own eligibility rules.

For a federal domestic violence bar, neither of those works. Only a Presidential pardon lifts it.

This is why we do not answer the firearm question from a website. We answer it from your record, after reading what you were actually convicted of, under which subdivision, and on what date — and we tell you honestly when the answer is no.