Anyone using a firearm, including just displaying the firearm, during the commission of a crime shall be sentenced to an additional five (5) years in prison, without the possibility for reduction or suspension.[36] If such person is a convicted felon, the sentence is an additional ten (10) years.[37]
Unless pardoned, expunged, or relieved from disability, a felon may not possess a firearm or other designated weapon.[38] While Mississippi offers a procedure whereby a convict’s right to own a firearm may be restored by obtaining a “certificate of rehabilitation,”[39] it would appear there is no such relief from federal restrictions unless the person receives a full and complete pardon, an expungement of the conviction, or restoration of his civil rights from the Governor.[40] This is because although a state conviction may be “rehabilitated,” the federal prohibition would still apply in the absence of a full restoration of a person’s civil rights, expungment of the conviction, or a pardon.[41]
It is, of course, illegal to knowingly or intentionally possess, receive, sell or dispose of a stolen firearm.[42]