Certain domestic violence convictions would carry lifetime gun bans

Courts would order lifetime gun bans for covered domestic assaults and protection-order violations. Court-ordered bans would cover assaults against family or household members and misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor protection-order violations when a gun was used or the offense meets the federal definition of misdemeanor domestic violence. A court-ordered ban would end with a pardon or court relief called an expungement unless that relief expressly keeps the firearms restriction. Other convictions restricting gun rights would still apply. A separate lifetime possession rule would cover guns and ammunition for convictions in Minnesota or elsewhere involving gun use against a family or household member or meeting the federal domestic violence definition. Courts would impose the bans at conviction.

Courts would tell covered people that they cannot possess any gun and that breaking the ban is a gross misdemeanor, a criminal offense. The rule covers misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor convictions for violating a protection order. This rule applies when the lifetime-ban provision does not apply. Regaining access would require three years from conviction without another conviction for violating a protection order. The possession rule applies to convictions after August 1, 1996.