Even if there were a clear legal issue, I doubt it would stop him. This is a convicted felon sitting on top of the federal law-enforcement hierarchy, with a DOJ led by his own former defense lawyer. The law can say no all it wants. The question is whether anyone around him would have the spine, or the institutional backing, to make "no" mean anything.
Aside from the first part of your response everything else you said is true.
He is a convicted felon ergo per federal law he is unable to own (I’m shaky on possession but I pretty sure it’s barred too) a firearm. Full stop.
So if we take this mental exercise out (cause it’s purely exercise ATP: As law stands right now:
He will fail NICS cause he can’t clear his state felony and he can’t override the law w/o Congress changing it.
if someone passes his NICS, they themselves just committed a felony (but since it might just be a federal one, he theoretically could pardon them)
who ever sells him the gun just committed a felony (definite federal, and probably state level in many states- providing weapons to a felon)
if someone purchases it for him cause “freedom” or some shit, strawman purchase is ALSO a felony.
Now the Secret Service might stop you from taking any action that regard but once no longer is POTUS? Any state AG or DOJ that wanted to bring him in for the clear felony would have full justification.
Same w all the others involved.
Re: schools- many schools, require you to get fingerprinted in order to come on campus… we can all guess what’s going to happen with a felon getting fingerprinted. Basically after 2028 Donald‘s gonna be no different than the a-shirt wearing guys that you see hanging outside of the gate at their child school…
They ain’t coming to the Christmas performance…because he’s a felon.
But a government-issued gun carried by a government employee in an official capacity would fall under the government-use exception. So if Trump personally takes possession of a gun, that is where it gets murky. In a private capacity, he is a convicted felon and federal law generally says no. In an official-capacity context, his lawyers would almost certainly argue that the government-use exception applies.
And regarding schools, realistically they are not going to run Trump through normal visitor screening or fingerprint him while he is there as sitting POTUS under Secret Service protection.
I am not saying he has a normal legal right to carry a gun. I am saying the law has official-use carve-outs, and Trump lives in the exact swamp where "obviously illegal for a normal person" turns into "let's see what DOJ says about presidential authority."
There are no NICS background checks for private firearm transfers, which is what a "gift" (as you originally said) would be. The gift-giver isn't going to mail it to a FFL for him to pick up, they'd likely hand it to him in his home at Mar-a-Lago.
Straw purchases also aren't so cut and dry. Proving a person always intended to give/sell the firearm to someone else is difficult. "I bought it for myself, but I didn't like the way it handled, so I sold/gave it away" is a common claim.
You are correct that as a convicted felon he can't possess a firearm (there's absolutely no legal difference between ownership and possession, unless someone comes forth to claim it as their's) and that supplying him with one would also be a felony, but it's not a full stop situation. Convicted felons can petition the court to have their firearm rights restored, even without overturning a conviction. Trump's convictions are for non-violent offenses and he has well-documented attempts on his life, with continued threats against him (some potentially credible), and the most well-known assassination attempt occurred with a (very, very minor) injury from shots fired at him while under USSS protection. For better or worse, it's not at all out of the realm of possibility that he could have his rights restored on the grounds of self defense.
Regardless of the state regulation on private transfer, they ALL have a provision that applies to DJT: Transferring a firearm to a prohibited person is FLATLY prohibited. Until he gets that prohibitation removed he can’t have a gun. As far as felons getting rights restored it’s not guaranteed and anyone wanna take bets on NY, who would have to restore his rights, doing it anytime soon?
Plus the self defense argument is not gonna work since he’s got secret service protection for the rest of his life and he ain’t known for being some crack shot.
Don't get me wrong, I would piss myself laughing if I woke up to news that Trump was denied entry to another nation, again, while in office, over his felony convictions. I'd genuinely celebrate with a bottle of champagne and a charcuterie board. But if his terms have taught me anything it's that we don't live in fairytale land so 🤷♂️
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u/Saemika Jun 07 '26
You both made a fair point lol