Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Independence Institute and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal prohibition on firearm possession by marijuana users.
The case, United States v. Hemani, challenges 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which bars firearm possession by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” The prohibition applies to marijuana users regardless of whether marijuana is legal under state law or used for medicinal purposes.
The Court agreed to hear the case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held the ban unconstitutional as applied to Hemani, a marijuana user.
The amicus brief argues that banning firearm possession by marijuana users who are not intoxicated is unconstitutional because it lacks any grounding in America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Historically, legislatures addressed the risks associated with firearms and intoxicants through narrow, conduct-based restrictions—temporarily limiting the carry, use, or purchase of firearms while a person was intoxicated—rather than categorically disarming individuals based on their status as users. Laws that completely disarmed Americans were always based on dangerousness, yet in this case the government has made no serious effort to establish any connection between marijuana use and dangerousness.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit www.nraila.org/litigation to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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