Getting Your Gun Rights Back in Pennsylvania: The State-Side Routes

Scope. This guide covers Pennsylvania's firearms-disability law, 18 Pa.C.S. § 6105, and related state-court routes to relief. Federal law is a separate inquiry: some records create both disabilities, while others do not. The new federal application program is covered in How to Apply for Federal Firearm Rights Restoration (FFRR): A Pennsylvania Guide. A state proceeding can sometimes resolve federal consequences too, but its exact legal effect matters. Sources were checked on September 5, 2026.

The short version

Can a felon get gun rights back in Pennsylvania? Sometimes—but not simply by waiting. Pennsylvania's prohibition depends on the offense or status specified in § 6105, not just whether someone calls the case a felony. An ordinary enumerated-offense disability does not disappear because ten years have passed. Specific statutory routes include:

1. Vacatur: relief after the disabling conviction has been vacated and appellate rights are exhausted or expired.
2. A full Governor's pardon: an express ground for a § 6105(d) relief order, coordinated with the pardon and expungement process.
3. Section 6105(d)(3): federal conviction-based relief, subject to an express funding-based waiver, plus the paragraph's ten-year requirement.
4. Section 6105.1: a special restoration hearing for qualifying convictions under specified former Pennsylvania codes.
5. Mental-health relief: a current-risk petition under § 6105(f)(1), or a challenge to a § 302 commitment's original evidentiary basis under § 6111.1(g)(2).

The first task is to identify every actual prohibition. These routes are not interchangeable, and an order addressing one basis does not necessarily resolve another. 18 Pa.C.S. § 6105(c)–(g).

Door 1 — vacatur

Section 6105(d)(1) provides this ground for court-ordered relief:

“The conviction has been vacated under circumstances where all appeals have been exhausted or where the right to appeal has expired.”

A qualifying applicant may seek relief in the court of common pleas of the county of principal residence. Under § 6105(d), the court shall grant relief when the applicable statutory ground is established. Obtaining the vacatur is a separate appeal or post-conviction matter, with its own eligibility requirements and deadlines; a firearms petition does not itself overturn the conviction.

A qualifying set-aside may also remove the conviction as a federal § 922(g)(1) predicate under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). That section looks to the law of the jurisdiction where the proceedings occurred. The nature and scope of the relief, remaining firearms restrictions, and any independent federal prohibition still need review. An order vacating one conviction does not resolve every possible federal disability.

Door 2 — a pardon and record follow-through

The second statutory ground is equally direct: “The conviction has been the subject of a full pardon by the Governor.” Section 6105(d)(2) makes a full Governor's pardon a basis for a court order lifting the covered Pennsylvania disability.

A separate firearms petition is not a universal prerequisite after every pardon. The statutory definition matters too: § 6102 excludes a conviction that has been expunged or overturned, or for which the individual has been pardoned, unless the pardon expressly prohibits firearms possession or transport. The § 6105(d)(2) court-relief route must be read together with that definition.

Coordinate the pardon, expungement, and firearms records. An unconditional pardon also triggers the automatic expungement process under § 9122(a)(2.1) and (a.1). The Board of Pardons transmits the information through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to the court of conviction, which confirms eligibility and orders expungement. Whether a further order or record correction is needed depends on the pardon, resulting orders, actual record updates, and any remaining disability. A cleared conviction does not resolve a separate prohibiting status.

The clemency process has its own timeline. Applications proceed through processing, a Department of Corrections investigation, merit review and, if approved for one, a public hearing. A favorable recommendation goes to the Governor for the final decision. The Board's current guidance says a decision may take a few years; it is not a guaranteed timetable. Our pardons and expungements page explains the process.

For the federal conviction-based prohibition, § 921(a)(20) generally excludes qualifying pardoned, expunged, set-aside, or civil-rights-restored convictions, subject to its firearms-restriction exception. A Pennsylvania pardon does not pardon a federal conviction, and a different federal disability—such as a qualifying protective order or mental-health commitment—requires its own analysis.

Door 3 — § 6105(d)(3) is not a ten-year reset

This paragraph requires each of two conditions: relief from an applicable federal disability resulting from the prior conviction, and ten years, excluding incarceration, since the most recent conviction in one of the paragraph's specified groups. Those groups are an offense enumerated in § 6105(b), a felony Pennsylvania controlled-substance offense, or the offense producing a § 922(g)(9) prohibition. The clock runs from the relevant conviction, not simply the conduct date.

The federal-relief condition has an express exception. Section 6105(d)(3)(i) still names the Secretary of the Treasury and continues: “except that the court may waive this condition if the court determines that the Congress of the United States has not appropriated sufficient funds to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to grant relief to applicants eligible for the relief”. The state court's waiver authority is why federal defunding did not simply make this state route unusable.

The new Attorney General-administered FFRR process creates a sequencing question; it does not erase that language from Pennsylvania's statute. Our FFRR guide explains the successor-officer and funding issues. Whether a particular federal grant satisfies the state condition, and whether the funding-based waiver remains available in a particular proceeding, need current legal analysis. Federal relief first may be a sensible strategy for some applicants, not a universal rule imposed by § 6105(d)(3).

Eligibility must be read from the actual subsection. Section 6105(d) expressly includes the specified conviction categories and conduct under § 6105(c)(1), (2), (5), (7), and (9). Those applicants are not automatically excluded from seeking relief. Being within the application provision is not enough: the applicant still must establish a statutory ground for relief, and independent prohibitions remain. The DUI restriction in (c)(3), mental-health disability in (c)(4), and PFA-related restriction in (c)(6) have separate provisions in (e) or (f).

Door 4 — § 6105.1 and convictions under former codes

Section 6105.1 addresses a narrowly defined disabling offense: a conviction that resulted in a federal firearms disability, under the former 1929 or 1959 Vehicle Code or the former 1939 Penal Code, substantially similar to an offense now punishable by no more than two years—or to conduct that is no longer illegal. A conviction is not eligible merely because it is old.

The statute provides an open-court hearing in the county of principal residence. It directs restoration unless one of its exclusions applies: another listed disqualifying offense or status, another crime punishable by imprisonment exceeding one year as defined in § 6102, or character and reputation indicating that the applicant would likely act dangerously. That specially defined threshold excludes state misdemeanors punishable by no more than two years and specified business-regulation offenses. The disabling-offense definition also excludes specified domestic-relationship conduct that would now constitute second-degree-misdemeanor simple assault or a higher grade.

This is not simply a state-only remedy. The statute expressly addresses convictions producing federal disability and defines restoration to include voting, holding public office, and jury service as well as firearms rights. That civil-rights restoration matters to the separate § 921(a)(20) analysis. The order's scope and any remaining federal prohibition still must be checked. Section 6105.1(d) also says that this relief is neither expungement nor a Governor's pardon.

Door 5 — mental-health commitments

Section 6105(c)(4) covers adjudications of incompetence and specified involuntary inpatient commitments under §§ 302, 303, or 304 of the Mental Health Procedures Act. For a § 302 proceeding, the examining physician must have certified that inpatient care was necessary or that the person was committable. Being taken for an evaluation is not, by itself, the whole statutory test.

Challenge the original § 302 evidence

Under § 6111.1(g)(2), a person may seek review of the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the § 302 commitment. If that evidence was insufficient, the court must order the commitment record submitted to the Pennsylvania State Police expunged. This can remove that commitment as the basis for the state firearms restriction; it does not automatically erase every hospital record or a separate § 303 or § 304 commitment.

This is a review of the original evidence, not a fresh assessment of recovery today. In In re Vencil, 152 A.3d 235 (Pa. 2017), the Supreme Court limited the review to the information available to the physician at the time, with deference to that decision-maker and a preponderance standard.

Old commitments raise a deadline problem. In re P.M., 230 A.3d 454 (Pa. Super. 2020) applies the six-year civil limitations period to § 6111.1(g)(2) petitions. In re W.K., 2025 PA Super 280, reaffirmed that rule and rejected the argument that recently obtaining an old commitment record restarted the clock on its facts. Accrual and any tolling issue require record-specific advice; do not assume a decades-old commitment can be challenged whenever convenient.

Seek relief based on present safety

Section 6105(f)(1) provides a different route for a person subject to § 6105(c)(4). The court may grant appropriate relief if it finds that “the applicant may possess a firearm without risk to the applicant or any other person”. Treatment history, current stability, and qualified professional evidence can be important to that showing. This route does not require proving that the original commitment lacked sufficient evidence, and a relief order is not itself expungement of the commitment record.

Check the federal effect too. A commitment can also raise a separate § 922(g)(4) issue. Under 34 U.S.C. § 40915, qualifying state relief can remove that federal disability. DOJ's FFRR guidance explains that qualifying state-program relief means the person is no longer prohibited under § 922(g)(4), and generally directs applicants to pursue available remedies first. Do not assume every state order qualifies or that a second FFRR application is always necessary.

What does not, by itself, lift the disability

• Time alone: there is no general ten-year reset for an ordinary enumerated conviction. Particular provisions do have their own expiration or relief rules, including §§ 6105(c)(8), (c)(10), and (e)(2). Identify the actual subsection instead of treating every disability as permanent or every old record as cleared.
• Limited access or Clean Slate sealing: § 9122.1 restricts dissemination; it does not itself vacate the conviction, pardon it, or supply a firearms-restoration order. Criminal-justice access remains available under § 9121(a). A sealed conviction can remain a firearms disqualifier.
• A federal FFRR grant: DOJ says the program “cannot remove a state firearm rights prohibition.” Federal decision and next steps.
• Completing probation or parole: completion alone is not a general restoration remedy. Section 6105(g) also preserves restrictions imposed by other laws or as conditions of probation or parole.

Plan the sequence from the record

A pardon or qualifying set-aside can affect both systems. Section 6105.1 and qualifying mental-health relief can have federal consequences too. FFRR addresses federal law, while its relationship to the state ten-year route requires analysis. The useful starting point is a complete record map—not an assumption that everyone needs the same two applications.

Gather the charging documents, judgments and sentences, offense grades and governing statutes, completion records, any pardon or expungement orders, and any relevant commitment or protective-order records. For older convictions, the former statutory text may determine whether § 6105.1 fits. Have the actual orders and record updates checked before possessing or acquiring a firearm; a test purchase is not a substitute for legal review. Restoration also should not be confused with automatic issuance of a license to carry.

Talk to a Lehigh Valley firearms-rights lawyer

Madsen Law Offices handles firearms-rights matters across Northampton and Lehigh Counties, including § 6105 relief, pardon applications, commitment-record issues, and the federal FFRR analysis. From our office next to the Northampton County Courthouse, we can evaluate the record and identify which state and federal steps it calls for.

This article provides general information, not advice or a determination that any particular person may possess a firearm. It does not promise a result or create an attorney-client relationship.