Building a Community Coordinated Response to the Criminalization of Survivors: A Toolkit
(Fall 2025) This Toolkit provides ideas, strategies, and techniques for addressing the need and challenges related to making survivors charged…
“OFFICIAL USE” Exemption, Allowing Firearms Possession by Law Enforcement and Military Personnel
The Gun Control Act (GCA) prohibits persons subject to certain qualifying protection orders from possessing or receiving firearms and/or ammunition. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (8). However, 18 U.S.C. § 925(a)(1) exempts the United States, states, and political subdivisions of states from most provisions of the GCA, including the firearm prohibitions contained in §§ 922(g), (d) and (n), except the prohibitions imposed for persons convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (18 U.S.C. § 922(d)(9) and (g) (9)). As a result, employees of a federal, state, or local department or agency, such as law enforcement officers and members of the military, are prohibited from receiving and possessing firearms and ammunition, even on behalf of the government entity, if the employee has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.