US Supreme Court limits ban on gun ownership by marijuana users

35 pointsposted 5 hours ago
by helterskelter
(reuters.com)

16 Comments

Fezzik

4 hours ago

Apropos of not much, but life experience tells me that people who consume alcohol are far more concerning gun owners than those that smoke weed.

vanderZwan

3 hours ago

US drug policy is more "which population demographic uses it?" based than anything else.

asdff

2 hours ago

Hence why this is now changing. Every demographic smokes weed now. It is no longer a good proxy to hamstring blacks, browns, and leftists.

ActorNightly

25 minutes ago

If you are pro gun, gun rights should be universal. Anyone should be able to buy a gun, because otherwise, "the big bad government" can take away your gun rights by labeling you as belonging to the group that is forbidden to buy guns.

If you are scared of getting shot by people that you think shouldn't own guns, then it means you haven't trained enough with your own gun.

(I personally don't believe this, but its a fun way to troll pro gun people)

CGMthrowaway

2 hours ago

If you said people who carry firearms when drunk, I might be inclined to agree.

But if you mean more generally people who drink, vs. people who smoke weed, I would expect to find the type of people who use illegal drugs (even weed) would be far more concerning on average.

rubyn00bie

an hour ago

I’ve never seen someone stoned outta their mind get into a fight with strangers, friends, or beat their spouse. I have seen drunk people do that though. I’ve been attacked by drunks myself. I’ve never been attacked by someone who is high as fuck. And I spent years smoking, and hanging out with a huge amount of folks who smoked weed.

The connotation that because marijuana is an “illegal drug” in some places means those people are more inclined to violence is borderline absurd. Violence is more likely to happen to producers, and sellers, because they have no access to the police. Producers and sellers are also categorically different than someone buying it to consume it.

Can someone who consumes weed be violent? Sure, but I would highly suspect it’s correlation and not causation.

Natfan

12 minutes ago

mild devil's advocate, but i have heard that spice, a synthetic cannaboid, can cause violent psychosis.

however as it's a synthetic drug i don't think it's in the same category as quote unquote "regular" cannabis

exabrial

3 hours ago

Unbelievable that a right like firearm ownership was ever gated like this.

asdff

2 hours ago

It isn't that unbelievable. This came in direct response to the Black Panthers armed protest in Sacramento in 1967. The law came in 1968. You have to remember that power then, and still now in a lot of ways, was racist.

m3047

2 hours ago

Ah, the 1960s.

AndrewKemendo

4 hours ago

I know for a fact in Virginia you were explicitly told when getting your medical cannabis certificate from a doctor that you would then be ineligible for a concealed carry license.

mothballed

3 hours ago

The 4473 still hasn't changed, so it still appears to be a felony to buy a gun from an FFL if you use recreational marijuana, since it would require lying on the form to get it approved.

dcrazy

3 hours ago

The Supreme Court doesn’t have the power or the need to rewrite the form. Either the Executive rewrites the form to comply with this ruling, Congress passes a law ordering the Executive to rewrite the form, or someone answers the form truthfully, gets denied, and then sues the ATF. Depending on how the case is filed and relevant case law, the court can order the ATF to issue a permit to the plaintiff, or order the ATF to stop denying permits to anyone who is in a similar situation to the plaintiff. (The recent rulings about nationwide injunctions are directly relevant to this discussion.)

rolph

an hour ago

- are you an unlawful user of or addicted to, [list,x]

so user of [x] disqualifies, or seemingly addiction to [x] no usage required will also disqualify

if federally you are a lawful medical recipient, you could qualify, it might be grey, as the combination of firearm and medical marijuana might become illegal use even with a prescription.

mothballed

an hour ago

not legal advice but the ATF appears to already be considering medical marijuana lawful use after the rescheduling, and even filed a rule change to exempt it from that question. The comments period recently closed, I think the form will probably change in less than a year. But there's no expectation yet it will be changed to include recreational marijuana.

I suspect dcrazy is right, someone will have to sue and wait god knows how long for it to wind through the courts, before it will change for recreational.