It depends on the conviction. Under federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), a conviction that has been expunged generally no longer counts as a conviction for firearm purposes, unless the expungement expressly says the person may not possess firearms. The bigger limit is on the state side. The convictions that trigger Rhode Island's own firearm ban under R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-5 are mostly crimes of violence, and those cannot be expunged at all, so the expungement route never opens for them. Domestic violence convictions raise their own federal issues. Because a wrong answer here is a new felony, do not buy, borrow, or accept a gun based on an expungement order alone. Have a lawyer review the exact conviction, the order, and both state and federal law first.
