Mel Gibson’s Gun Rights Restored Thanks to Trump Administration

One of Hollywood’s biggest voices on the right is getting his gun rights back.

Mel Gibson, the actor and director as well known for his politics as his entertainment, was one of 10 individuals named in a Department of Justice notice in the Federal Register on Tuesday whose “firearms privileges” were being restored.

And he has Attorney General Pam Bondi to thank for it.

Actor Mel Gibson has his firearms rights back along with nine others, including a former NFL player. https://t.co/aJOA5aHu09

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 30, 2025

Gibson, 69, solidified his stardom in the 1980s and ’90s with the “Mad Max” and “Lethal Weapon” movie franchises. And his 1995 production “Braveheart,” which Gibson starred in, directed, and produced, is one of the best known films of the decade.

The 21st century saw Gibson reaching new heights with 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ.” But it also saw new lows, including a 2006 DUI arrest where he spouted anti-Semitic comments to the arresting officer and a 2011 conviction for misdemeanor battery over a fight with his then-partner and mother of his daughter, according to Business Insider.

Gibson pleaded “no contest” to the charge, The New York Times reported at the time, and received 36 months probation. The conviction also meant Gibson lost his rights to possessing a firearm, the Times noted in a March report.

The conviction was vacated in 2014 after Gibson completed probation, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Gibson quit drinking after the 2010 incident and in 2020 celebrated 10 years of sobriety, People magazine reported at the time.

Gibson’s legal situation was back in the news because a Justice Department pardon attorney, Elizabeth G. Oyer, was fired after she declined to add Gibson to a list of Americans whose gun rights should be restored, according to the Times.

Oyer has challenged her firing. At an April 7 congressional hearing, according to USA Today, she testified, “I had been asked to recommend restoring the firearm rights of a famous friend of the president who had lost his right to own a gun due to a domestic violence conviction.”

“I declined to do so based on concerns about public safety.”

That “famous friend of the president” was Gibson, USA Today reported. And Bondi clearly disagreed with Oyer.

The Federal Register notice contains no explanation about Gibson specifically, but noted that under federal law, the U.S. attorney general has the power to restore gun rights “if it is established to [the Attorney General’s] … satisfaction that the circumstances regarding the disability, and the applicant’s record and reputation, are such that the applicant will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety and that the granting of the relief would not be contrary to the public interest.”

Included in those 10 names with Gibson, as the New York Post noted, was former New York Jet and NFL Hall of Famer Joseph Klecko. Kleck lost his gun rights after a 1993 conviction for lying to a federal grand jury in an insurance fraud case.

Gibson’s vocal conservativism and unabashed Catholic beliefs have made him deeply unpopular with the Hollywood establishment, but his reformation after a troubled past has helped other celebrities, like Robert Downy Jr., deal with addiction.

Gibson is also something of a hero to conservatives.

In January, Trump named Gibson and fellow conservative actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as “ambassadors to Hollywood.”

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