DOJ Put Nine Names in the Federal Register. 925(c) Is No Longer a Dead Letter.

The Department of Justice published a notice in the Federal Register on Thursday, August 27, 2026 — Vol. 91, No. 165, pages 55362–55363, FR Doc. 2026-17527. Action: notice of granting of restoration of Federal firearms privileges. The Attorney General granted relief from federal disabilities on acquisition, receipt, transfer, shipment, transportation, or possession of firearms or ammunition. Section 925(c) requires that whenever relief is granted, the Attorney General “shall promptly publish in the Federal Register notice of such action, together with the reasons therefor.” This is that notice.

Attorney General Todd Blanche “reviewed all the relevant facts for each individual listed below, including the materials that each individual submitted seeking either a pardon or relief from Federal firearms disabilities,” and found each “will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety” and that relief “would not be contrary to the public interest.” On May 18, 2026, then-Acting Attorney General Blanche granted relief to Patrick Atkinson, Thomas Leon Brooks, Truman James Cox, Dennis L. Haynes, Joshua Ryan Huffman, Dennis William Richardson, Nicholas Robert Sylvester, and Jeffrey Alan Wines. On August 5, 2026, he granted relief to Edmund Arthur Martricardi III. The notice is dated August 24 and signed by Trent McCotter, Acting Deputy Attorney General. No cities or underlying convictions are listed.

That is not an amnesty. Blanche’s August 17 rule announcement said restoration is neither automatic nor guaranteed, and that violent felons remain presumptively ineligible. Federal relief also does not override state law. What changed is the scoreboard: nine named people are off the federal blacklist in a public notice, the way Congress wrote the statute in 1968. The process exists. The first names are in the book.