There was a recent court case about this (Rehaif v. U.S) where the Supreme Court made a decision about the law making it a felony to knowingly possess a gun in the US while here illegally. The prosecutor said "knowingly" just refers to the gun possession, but Rehaif's lawyer said it should refer to knowingly possessing the gun and knowing that you weren't in the country legally (Rehaif claimed that he hadn't read an email saying his student visa was revoked before he rented a gun at a shooting range). The Supreme Court said that "knowingly" referred to both the possession and the legality of one's presence. Presumably that means they're OK with a law that discriminates against some non-citizens on US soil.

Another thing that I just learned it is actually still illegal to borrow a gun at a shooting range if you have a non-immigrant visa (unless you have a hunting license). Even if he hadn't lost his visa he'd still be breaking a different law. It's illegal for people visiting with tourist visas to go to shooting ranges, but for tourists visiting from countries that don't require visas it's OK.

> Another thing that I just learned it is actually still illegal to borrow a gun at a shooting range if you have a non-immigrant visa (unless you have a hunting license).

Huh; do you have a citation for this? I used to bring scientists from other countries to the shooting range for the cultural experience, and almost brought a pal from Europe hunting a year or two ago (on my license). Never realized I might have been putting them in legal jeopardy.

The actual law is here Title 18, Section 922, g(5)(B): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922 I would guess that it's not enforced very often.

If your friend was visiting from a European country that didn't require a visa to visit the US (most of them) you'd be in the clear.

Some discussion for non-immigrant visas about halfway down this article: https://reason.com/2019/01/12/illegal-aliens-guns-and-strict...

Looks like it was recently (thankfully) reversed and remanded: https://ballotpedia.org/Rehaif_v._United_States

Weird quirk with the huntling license, so that second example is a state law?

No, it's federal law that includes among it's explicit exemptions possession of a valid state hunting license. The law has not been much litigated, though the Ninth Circuit upheld it earlier this year in a case that was mostly a campaign finance crimes case but also involved gun possession by the foreign, non-immigrant defendant.