CCRKBA HAILS UNANIMOUS SCOTUS RULING ON SECOND AMENDMENT
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is hailing the unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court which strikes down a federal prohibition on firearms ownership for people who are “habitual” marijuana users.
The case, known as United States v. Hemani, involved Texas resident Ali Hemani, who had been charged with a felony for possessing a handgun for self-defense while admitting he used marijuana “every other day,” which was prohibited by federal statute (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3)). CCRKBA submitted an amicus brief supporting Hemani, which was joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, California Rifle & Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center and Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.
Writing for the Court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch observed, “(W)e do not question that sometimes an individual’s unlawful use of marijuana (or any other controlled substance) may render him a danger to others. But, again, the government disclaims the need to show anything like that in this case. Instead, it asks us to conclude that anyone who regularly uses marijuana is categorically violent and dangerous without any further showing. All based on little more than its current say-so, one at odds with its own regulatory actions. And affording the government that kind of ‘broad power to designate any group as dangerous and thereby disqualify its members from having a gun’ would risk allowing it to ‘quickly swallow’ the Second Amendment.”
“The federal statute, as the court rightly held, casts too wide a net,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb stated. “This one-size-fits-all approach to law enforcement has never worked. As we noted in our brief, historically the government has never prohibited sober people from owning firearms because they sometimes drank alcohol. The same logic applies here, especially since so many states now allow recreational marijuana use, and its use as a prescribed medical aid are widely recognized.
“We are also in agreement with the spirited concurrence from Justice Clarence Thomas that the courts should revisit the constitutionality of the entire section of law under which Mr. Hemani, and so many others, have been prosecuted,” he added.
