Final week, Marijuana Second reported on a brand new Arkansas regulation that might shield medical hashish customers’ gun rights. This regulation is the latest in a collection of makes an attempt by states to get round federal gun management legal guidelines that prohibit hashish customers from proudly owning or shopping for weapons. It received’t work.
I’ve written extensively on the federal legal guidelines at subject (see hyperlinks to my posts beneath). Arkansas is attempting to guard its medical hashish customers by prohibiting state businesses from contemplating marijuana use when figuring out if somebody is entitled to hold a hid handgun. Furthermore, the state received’t deem somebody a recurring managed substance person simply primarily based on their standing as a medical marijuana person. The brand new regulation additionally prohibits the state well being division from disclosing an individual who has a medical hashish card to the state police for doing hid handgun firearm checks.
There’s extra to the regulation than that, however at this level it most likely doesn’t make an enormous distinction. The regulation is destined to fail, and we now have precedent. As I described right here, the State of Missouri tried to equally shield hashish customers’ gun rights and failed spectacularly. When the state’s regulation handed, the federal authorities sued and handily defeated Missouri’s comparable regulation. I’d be shocked if we didn’t see an identical end result on this gun rights instance.
Moreover, the actual fact stays that this received’t – and can’t – change federal firearm licensing (FFL) necessities. Particularly, FFL holders should pressure gun purchasers to finish kind ATF 4473, and reply “Sure” or “No” to the next query:
Are you an illegal person of, or hooked on, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or some other managed substance?
Warning: The use or possession of marijuana stays illegal underneath Federal regulation no matter whether or not it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or leisure functions within the state the place you reside.
If an FFL holder offered a gun to somebody who answered “Sure” to that query, the FFL holder may lose its license AND even presumably face federal prison legal responsibility. Would any regulation abiding FFL holder in Arkansas actually roll the cube right here? I doubt it. Remember the fact that the federal authorities was very fast to remind FFL holders of those necessities when, for instance, Michigan and Minnesota legalized hashish. The federal authorities doesn’t like hashish, and sure doesn’t like the concept of hashish customers’ gun rights.
So listed below are my predictions:
- ATF or another company points a “reminder” memo to FFL licensees (as in Michigan) or the general public at giant (as in Minnesota) within the coming weeks,
- the federal authorities tries to intervene, presumably with a lawsuit, however
- in a couple of years, all of that is mooted as increasingly courts, and presumably the U.S. Supreme Court docket, finds the federal regulation at play unconstitutional. (As an apart, please see my beneath factors for why I feel the federal legal guidelines at subject are and will likely be held unconstitutional, as has already occurred in lots of decrease courts.)
That every one stated, simply because one thing could also be held unconstitutional doesn’t imply that the legal guidelines should not at present “on the books” and that the federal authorities will implement them. It occurs at present, and the federal government may discover methods to stick with it even after courts strike down the unconstitutional legal guidelines.
For a few of my different posts on hashish gun rights, please see this listing: