Federal Firearm & Felon in Possession Defense

Most gun possession cases in Chicago begin in state court, with a traffic stop, a search or an arrest on the street, and some of them become federal. Federal prosecutors often adopt a case when the person has a felony record, when the firearm is a machine gun or carries a conversion switch, or when the gun is tied to drugs or a robbery; the state charge is usually dismissed and the case starts over at the Dirksen courthouse.

What changes in federal court is the exposure. Possessing a firearm as a prohibited person carries up to 15 years, three qualifying prior convictions make 15 years the minimum, and a firearm count attached to a drug or robbery charge adds a mandatory consecutive sentence. The defense begins with the stop or the search.

Bedi & Singer defends people charged with federal firearm offenses in the Northern District of Illinois, at the Dirksen courthouse a block from its office, and in federal courts across the country. Gun charges in Illinois state court are handled in Bedi & Singer’s state practice: unlawful possession of a weapon and repeat offender firearm charges.

Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)) makes it a crime for nine classes of people to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate commerce, which nearly every firearm has. The classes most often charged are a person convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, an unlawful user of a controlled substance, and a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence or under a qualifying protective order. Possession can be actual or constructive, so a gun in a shared car or home is often the whole case, and the government must prove that the person knew they belonged to the prohibited class, not only that they had the gun.

The maximum is 15 years, raised from 10 by Congress in 2022. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (18 U.S.C. § 924(e)), a person with three prior convictions for a violent felony or a serious drug offense, committed on occasions different from one another, faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life, with no probation. Which priors count, and whether they were separate occasions, are litigated before sentencing.

Knowingly lying on the federal form to buy a gun from a licensed dealer, about a fact that matters to whether the sale is lawful (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6)), carries up to 10 years. Since 2022, a straw purchase for a person who cannot lawfully have the gun (§ 932) and trafficking a gun to such a person (§ 933) each carry up to 15 years, and 25 for a straw purchase made knowing, or with reasonable cause to believe, that the gun will be used in a felony. Possessing a machine gun carries up to 10 years, and a conversion switch is a machine gun under federal law whether or not it is attached to a pistol.

A person who uses or carries a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence or a drug trafficking crime, or possesses one in furtherance of it, faces a separate count under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) with a mandatory minimum of 5 years, 7 if the firearm was brandished and 10 if it was discharged, served consecutively to every other sentence, with no probation. If the firearm is a machine gun or has a silencer, the minimum is 30 years. The count stands or falls on the underlying offense: not every robbery charge is a crime of violence, and a gun found near drugs is not always possessed “in furtherance” of selling them. Bedi & Singer handles these counts as part of its drug and robbery defense.

The detention hearing is held at the first appearance or, if either side asks for a continuance, generally within three working days on the government’s request and five on the defense’s. Because the charge involves a firearm, the government can move for detention and must show that no conditions would reasonably assure the person’s appearance and the safety of the community; there is no presumption of detention based on a possession charge alone, though there is one where a § 924(c) count is charged. Bedi & Singer prepares for that hearing as for a trial.

Most federal gun cases are won or lost on the stop and the search. Whether the police had a lawful reason to stop the car or the person, to search the car, the bag or the home, and to seize the gun is litigated by motion to suppress. The defense also examines who possessed the gun where several people had access to it, the DNA and fingerprint testing, and the record that makes the person a prohibited person: a conviction later vacated, or rights that were restored, can take the person out of the statute.

Since the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions of 2022 and 2024, people charged under § 922(g) have argued that the statute cannot constitutionally be applied to them. In 2026 the Supreme Court held that the unlawful-user provision could not be applied to a man prosecuted only because he used marijuana a few times a week, and some courts have accepted the argument for people with nonviolent felony records. The Seventh Circuit upheld the felon-in-possession statute in 2026 for a person whose earlier felony, drug dealing, it treated as dangerous, and left open whether a person with a non-dangerous felony can be disarmed. At sentencing the advisory guidelines turn on the person’s record and the type of firearm, and the court weighs the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). An appeal from the Northern District of Illinois goes to the Seventh Circuit.

Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer work on Bedi & Singer’s federal firearm cases together. Every case is prepared as though it will be tried.