DOJ Pardon Attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer, fired for refusing to consider restoring rights to the President’s ally over fears of dangerousness, highlighted a disturbing new “working group” tasked with restoring gun rights to prohibited individuals en masse
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 11, 2025 — The Department of Justice fired Pardon Attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer after she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson — who is prohibited from owning a firearm due to his domestic violence conviction — have his gun rights reinstated. Oyer was reportedly put on a “working group to restore gun rights to people convicted of crimes,” and was “very alarmed…that officials kept insisting that the process for restoring such rights should be ‘automated,’ rather than based on a review of the facts of the cases.”
Kris Brown, President of Brady, said:
"You can't claim to be ‘tough on crime’ while arming domestic abusers. But the Trump Administration is ostensibly mobilizing a disturbing ‘working group’ to restore gun rights to individuals convicted of crimes, including to those that the administration or President personally favor – a reckless move that makes us all less safe. Worse yet, the administration is setting dangerous precedent by ousting DOJ officials who refuse to undermine common-sense gun laws that keep firearms away from domestic abusers and other prohibited people.
To be clear, we keep guns away from domestic abusers for a reason: because otherwise, people are killed. The mere presence of a firearm in a domestic violence situation increases the risk a woman will be killed by 400%.
If and when gun rights are restored to an individual, it needs to be through a robust and thoughtful system – not as a special favor to the gun industry. This Administration's approach puts lives at risk to score political points and boost gun sales. We won't sit by while this Administration puts guns back in the hands of people that courts and Congress have deemed too dangerous to possess them."
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Brady: United Against Gun Violence is the nation's oldest gun organization working to free America from gun violence. We believe that changing laws alone won’t end our nation's gun violence crisis; we must also change hearts and minds. That’s why we take a comprehensive approach to end this epidemic: change the laws, change the gun industry, and change the conversation about guns in America.
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