After the Supreme Court’s misguided decision to allow marijuana users to own guns, Congress must act to protect American communities.
In Hemani v. United States, the Court ruled that the federal government cannot categorically prohibit an occasional marijuana user from owning a gun even though marijuana remains illegal as a Schedule 1 substance. The Supreme Court’s decision was based on misinformed arguments and gave too little weight to the public health and safety risks associated with marijuana use.
Mirroring the arguments long made by pro-pot activists, Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion equated marijuana with alcohol, stating that “marijuana use today is like alcohol use at the founding.” However, this tired comparison failed to account for how marijuana can trigger acute psychotic episodes and other serious mental health problems, even among occasional users.
These risks are not theoretical, as marijuana has been tied to recent mass casualty incidents. The perpetrator of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting in Minneapolis wrote in part that “weed f****d up my head” and “I wish I never tried experimenting with” it. The Hemani ruling threatens to make tragedies like this, which killed 2 people and injured 28 others, more frequent.
A study of more than 230,000 marijuana users found that 0.47%––approximately 1 in 200––had experienced marijuana-associated psychotic symptoms severe enough to require emergency medical treatment at some point in their lives. When extrapolated to the national population of lifetime marijuana users, this would correspond with hundreds of thousands of cases. Even one, when paired with a firearm, would have the potential to spiral into the next national tragedy.
It should be clear that the federal government should not make it easier for marijuana users to own guns. Drug users have been barred from owning guns for a reason.
An individual who has not followed the nation’s drug laws should not be trusted to follow its gun laws. Will the users of other scheduled substances, such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, be allowed to possess guns next?
What’s more, the Court acknowledged that the federal government’s hands-off approach to marijuana has facilitated the rise in marijuana-related problems: “the federal government has not just tolerated them; it helped fuel them.” There are now more daily marijuana users than alcohol users in large part because the government has shied away from enforcing its own laws.
To its credit, the Court did not preclude Congress from passing a future law to restrict firearm use by marijuana users. As such, members of Congress who represent constituencies concerned about gun violence and public health must work to pass legislation that would bar marijuana users from owning guns.
At first glance, it may sound relatively harmless to permit an occasional marijuana user to own a gun. However, the risks come to light when the issue is reframed around whether you would feel safe with a gunman using marijuana “about every other day,” as was the case with Hemani. Congress must revert the nation’s gun laws to how they were before the Hemani ruling.