# The ATF funding rider

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The ATF funding rider," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-atf-funding-rider/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The provision John Kiriakou describes as the reason no American felon has had firearm rights restored since the 1990s: a Clinton-era law permitting non-violent, non-drug felons to apply to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, paired in the same statute with a bar on any federal money being spent to investigate the applications.*

- **Passed:** 1990s, under Bill Clinton
- **What it allows:** Non-violent, non-drug felons to apply to the ATF for restoration of gun rights
- **What it forbids:** Any federal money being spent by the ATF to investigate applicants
- **Effect, per Kiriakou:** Nobody has ever had their gun rights restored
- **Discussed with:** Bruce Fein

**The ATF funding rider** is the legislative device John Kiriakou identifies as the practical reason that a formally available restoration of firearm rights has never restored anyone's. He set it out in January 2026 while answering a question about what a presidential pardon would actually get him.

## The pardon question

Asked what he would receive if he succeeded in obtaining a pardon, Kiriakou's answer was one word: *"My pension."* Told that this was not a small thing, he agreed that it was the whole thing, twenty years of proud government service, and something he needs to live on in old age.[1]

He can already vote. Governor Terry McAuliffe, who had followed his case, pardoned him at the state level without his ever having applied, because elections are administered by the states.[1][2]

## The split between state and federal rights

The consequence he finds absurd is that he has his state gun rights back and not his federal ones.[2] Asked whether that means he can carry in Virginia, his answer was yes and no: he can carry legally in Virginia in the sense that he is not violating a state law, but he is still violating federal law.[2] Rall's analogy, the position of a state-licensed cannabis dealer, drew his agreement: *"exactly the same thing."*[2]

## The rider itself

The mechanism is the part Kiriakou says he and the constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein have discussed *ad nauseam*. Congress passed a law in the 1990s, under [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton), providing that felons may apply to the ATF to have their gun rights reinstated if they were not convicted of a violent or drug-related felony.[3]

In the same law, Congress provided that no federal money shall be expended by the ATF to investigate any of the people who apply.[3] The result, as Rall put it and Kiriakou did not dispute, is that no one has ever had their gun rights restored.[4]

Kiriakou's own response to the same problem in its modern form, a 2025 Justice Department restoration process announced and never built, has been litigation rather than another application.

## See also

- [Kiriakou's gun rights appeal](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-gun-rights-appeal)
- [Kiriakou pardon request](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-pardon-request)
- [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 33:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=2005s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/
2. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 33:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=2037s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/
3. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 34:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=2068s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/
4. Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-01-30), at 34:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDPkwpAs6Io&t=2098s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-30-deprogram-show-with-is-trump-bidening-out-deprogram-with-ted/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-atf-funding-rider/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt