Firearm Possession While on Probation for Felon in Possession

Attorney Answer

Not while you are on probation — and probably not afterwards either, without a pardon. Texas law bars you for at least five years after your supervision ends, and even then only at your own home. The separate federal ban never runs out on its own.

Texas law. Tex. Penal Code § 46.04(a) provides that a person convicted of a felony commits an offense if he possesses a firearm (1) after the conviction and before the fifth anniversary of his release from confinement, or of his release from supervision under community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision — whichever date is later; or (2) after that five-year period, at any location other than the premises at which he lives.

Read the second prong carefully, because it is the part almost everyone gets backwards. The five years does not restore anything like normal gun rights. After it runs, Texas law still makes possession an offense anywhere except the place where you live. There is no point at which § 46.04 permits you to carry a firearm outside your home. And the five-year clock does not start at conviction or at the offense — it starts at the later of your release from confinement and your release from supervision.

Federal law, which is the harder wall. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) separately and independently bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year from possessing a firearm. It has no five-year clock. When the Texas period expires, the federal ban is still there, unchanged. Federal law reaches ammunition as well as firearms. Realistically, relief comes only through a pardon or a functioning federal restoration mechanism.

You may have read that courts are reconsidering the federal felon-in-possession ban. Some as-applied constitutional challenges are being litigated and the law is unsettled in parts of the country. Do not build a plan on that. It is not a defense you can rely on today, and a wrong guess is a new federal felony.

And you are on probation right now. Possessing a firearm is not only a fresh charge under Tex. Penal Code § 46.04(a) and potentially under the federal felon-in-possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) — it is a probation violation, which can mean revocation and imposition of the underlying sentence. That is three exposures from one act. Both of those charges rest on an actual conviction — § 46.04(a) on a felony conviction, § 922(g)(1) on a conviction for a crime punishable by more than one year — so if what you are serving is deferred adjudication rather than an adjudicated conviction, have a lawyer confirm which of the two bars currently reaches you. A firearm condition in your terms of supervision binds you either way. Note also that possession does not require ownership: a firearm in your home, in your vehicle, or otherwise under your access and control can count.

What you can do

1. Remove every firearm and all ammunition from your home, your vehicle, and anywhere you have access or control. Do it now, not eventually. 2. If someone in your household owns firearms, they must be stored where you genuinely cannot access them. Ask a lawyer what that requires in practice — a shared closet or an unlocked safe you know the combination to is not enough. 3. Do not hunt, shoot, handle a friend's firearm, or touch one at work. Momentary possession is still possession. 4. Get your judgment and supervision paperwork and identify your release-from-supervision date, since Tex. Penal Code § 46.04(a) measures its five years from the later of confinement release and supervision release. 5. Ask your probation officer in writing before doing anything firearm-adjacent, including going somewhere firearms are present. 6. If you want your rights restored, talk to a lawyer about executive clemency. Ask specifically what a pardon would and would not restore under Tex. Penal Code § 46.04(a) and under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) — they are separate bars and they do not lift together automatically.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Penal Code § 46.04(a) measures its five years from the later of your release from confinement and your release from supervision — not from the date of the offense and not from the date of conviction. That start date comes from your own judgment and discharge paperwork, so obtain those documents and have a lawyer read them rather than estimating from memory.