The Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco ruled that people who have been issued medical marijuana cards can be denied the purchase of a firearm. (Dave Workman photo)
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled unanimously Aug. 31 that a federal ban on the sale of firearms to medical marijuana card holders does not violate the Second Amendment.
The case involved a Nevada resident named S. Rowan Wilson. She attempted to purchase a gun in 2011, after having obtained a medical marijuana card, and the gun shop refused to sell the firearm. Although several states have legalized the use of medical marijuana and in some cases even recreational marijuana, it is still a controlled substance under federal law.
Ironically, according to the ruling, Wilson alleged that while she obtained a medical marijuana card, she never actually used pot “for various reasons, such as the difficulties of acquiring medical marijuana in Nevada, as well as a desire to make a political statement.”
The court later noted, that “Wilson could acquire firearms and exercise her right to self-defense at any time by surrendering her registry card, thereby demonstrating to a firearms dealer that there is no reasonable cause to believe she is an unlawful drug user.”
“It may be argued,” the court observed, “that medical marijuana users are less likely to commit violent crimes, as they often suffer from debilitating illnesses, for which marijuana may be an effective palliative. They also may be less likely than other illegal drug users to interact with law enforcement officers or make purchases through illicit channels. But those hypotheses are not sufficient to overcome Congress’s reasonable conclusion that the use of such drugs raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated.
“By citing to the link between unlawful drug users and violence in this case, however, the Government incorrectly conflates registry cardholders with unlawful drug users,” the court continued. “While these two categories of people overlap, they are not identical. The Government’s showings of the link between drug use and violence would be sufficient were we applying intermediate scrutiny to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which bars unlawful drug users from possessing firearms. But Wilson flatly maintains that she is not an unlawful drug user and is instead challenging a set of laws that bar non-drug users from purchasing firearms if there is only reasonable cause to believe that they are unlawful drug users, for instance, if they hold a registry card.”
The 30-page ruling, written by Senior District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, affects all nine states in the circuit, including California, Oregon and Washington. The full ruling may be read here.
