The Justice Department published a new records-system notice on October 7 for the Firearms Rights Restoration Electronic Records Database, or FRRERD. The Federal Register notice says the Office of the Pardon Attorney will use the system to receive, track and adjudicate applications under 18 U.S.C. 925(c). The notice took effect when published, subject to a 30-day comment period. Its listed routine uses are scheduled to take effect after November 6, 2026.
How the system fits the restoration process
FRRERD is the records infrastructure for a process DOJ revived and finalized before this notice. Congress has barred ATF from spending appropriated funds on Section 925(c) investigations since 1992, which made the old ATF-administered program unusable. The Attorney General withdrew that authority from ATF in March 2025, proposed a replacement process in July 2025 and issued final application and adjudication rules in August 2026. The new notice assigns the database to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which investigates applications and prepares recommendations for the Attorney General or a designee.
The database will use the FBI's existing Electronic Departmental Order service inside the Next Generation Identification system. The Office of the Pardon Attorney will maintain FRRERD, while the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division maintains the hosting platform. The notice also says FRRERD will interface with other FBI systems, including the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, for application adjudication. Records are electronic, and the system is unclassified.
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Covered records extend beyond the applicant's completed form. The notice lists identifiers, fingerprints, demographic and contact information, medical and mental-health records, military and consular records, arrest and conviction information, firearms prohibitor records, juvenile records, and foreign records. It can also contain information about character references, victims, spouses or partners, former spouses or partners, and children. Sources may include applicants, government agencies, courts, the military, hospitals and medical professionals.
DOJ proposes limits on record access
A companion proposed rule would exempt qualifying FRRERD material from several Privacy Act provisions. DOJ proposes limits covering disclosure accountings, access and amendment rights, notices to prior recipients after an amendment, and requirements concerning how information is collected and maintained. The exemptions would apply only when a record qualifies under the cited law-enforcement provisions, 5 U.S.C. 552a(j) or (k). DOJ also says it could waive an applicable exemption when compliance would not interfere with adjudication or law-enforcement operations.
DOJ's stated reason is that applicants' files will often contain criminal-law-enforcement and investigatory material. The proposal says unrestricted access or amendment could expose confidential sources, reveal the scope of an investigation, compromise candid communications among reviewing officials or disrupt the official adjudicatory record. It also says collecting information only from the applicant would impede an inquiry that depends on multiple sources. These are proposed exemptions, not a final rule, and DOJ says it will consider public comments before deciding whether to implement them.
The separate system notice authorizes a broad set of routine disclosures tied to adjudication and law enforcement. Records may be shared with agencies checking eligibility for firearm licenses or permits, government bodies verifying application information, courts handling related proceedings and members of Congress acting for the applicant or conducting oversight. DOJ may also publish the names of people whose restoration requests are approved in the Federal Register. The notice permits narrower disclosures to victims or complainants about the progress or result of a related matter when DOJ finds that disclosure necessary.
What applicants can take from the notices
The system notice says applications will be submitted online through an FBI-hosted website using a personal identification number and secure links or other authentication. Access inside the government is role-based and limited to trained personnel assigned to restoration work. Yet the retention period is not settled: DOJ has submitted a draft schedule to the National Archives and Records Administration, and all FRRERD records will be kept without a destruction schedule until approval. The notice describes written access and correction procedures but warns that exempt material may not be available or amendable.
Neither document grants firearm rights, changes the statutory public-safety test or promises approval. The proposed rule repeats DOJ's estimate of 330,000 respondents per year, a 65-minute response burden, a $30 application fee and one response every five years until relief is granted. Those figures describe the information collection, not expected approvals. For applicants, the immediate development is a defined electronic record system and notice of how sensitive case material may be used; the unresolved issue is how much of a particular file the applicant may later inspect or challenge.
Comments on both the system notice and the proposed Privacy Act exemptions are due November 6, 2026. The final scope of the exemptions remains unknown, as does the National Archives-approved retention schedule. DOJ also has not said in these notices when FRRERD will begin accepting applications through the described FBI website. Until those steps occur, the October 7 publications establish the records framework and invite comment, rather than announcing a new round of individual restoration decisions.
About the Author
Nick Sawinyh - Nick Sawinyh is a father, husband, hobby farmer, and gun enthusiast from Kentucky. He founded GunsNation and writes most of what appears on this blog.
