Following the legalization of cannabis in Minnesota, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) clarified that cannabis consumers are still “federally defined as an ‘unlawful user’ of a controlled substance” and therefore “prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition.”
In February, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that the federal law barring people who use cannabis from owning firearms is unconstitutional. That decision is under appeal. In April, a federal judge in Texas made a similar ruling, and referenced the blanket federal cannabis possession possession by President Joe Biden (D), suggesting that, even if the defendant “were convicted of simple marijuana possession, that conviction would be expunged by the blanket presidential pardon of all such marijuana possessions that, like Connelly’s, took place before October 6, 2022.”
A House bill introduced in April by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) aims to end the prohibition of firearm sales to cannabis consumers in states that allow adult- and medical-use cannabis. That measure is currently in the House Committee on the Judiciary. (Full Story)