The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments as to whether marijuana users should remain prohibited from owning guns. The prohibition has long been there for a while now, but it’s been more than a smidge problematic since states started legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational use.
The fact that the feds are doing nothing regarding the states hints that they don’t see it as that big of a deal, but the federal prohibition on guns for people who use pot in accordance with state laws is, at best, confusing.
Now, the Supreme Court will hopefully clear that up.
However, over at The Nation, Elie Mystal has decided that the left needs to understand that this isn’t a good thing, even if it loosens the rules on marijuana to some degree.
No, it’s a trap.
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his week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in a huge gun case, and in the process laid a trap for the progressive left that too many people are stumbling into. The case has always-online lefties arguing that an expansion of gun rights is the correct political and legal outcome, but that is getting things all twisted.
The case is called US v. Hemani, and it revolves around the application of a federal statute—18 USC Section 922(g)(3)—that prohibits gun ownership for any person who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” This is the exact law that Hunter Biden was convicted under—and that led Joe Biden to pardon his son.
The hypocrisy of this law is flagrant. Alcoholics are allowed to own guns. In some counties, you can stumble from your local bar to your local gun shop and be strapped before closing time. It is absurd that a person who is too drunk to operate a car is allowed to carry a gun on their person, but a weed smoker is not allowed to keep a gun in their house. Do you know how many mass shootings have been committed by people who were high on weed? My guess is zero… they all decided to shoot up the place tomorrow.
So far, it sounds reasonable. I even agreed with much of this right about now.
However, Mystal doesn’t wait too long to make everything partisan, claiming that the only reason the Trump administration is pushing this is because of anti-Biden animosity after Hunter’s pardon, then we get to this:
Between the blatant hypocrisy of conservative lawyers, the stupidity of the law at issue, and the possible anti-Biden motivation, you can see why a lot of people on the left want the court to resolve this case in favor of Hemani and drug users everywhere. But that would be a mistake.
I mentioned that Section 922 G-3 is the statute that bans guns for drug users and people with drug addictions. Anybody want to know what some of the other numbers in that section of law address? The law is part of the Gun Control Act of 1968. It was passed as a response to all of the political assassinations of the 1960s (there was a time in this country when we addressed political violence by strengthening gun laws instead of going on podcasts). Subsection G creates categories of people prohibited from owning firearms. G-2 bans guns for fugitives from justice. G-6 bans people who were dishonorably discharged from the military from continuing to own guns. G-8 deals with the people subject to restraining orders. G-9 bans guns from people convicted of domestic violence. Having the Supreme Court throw out G-3 opens the door for them to throw out a whole bunch of stuff in that law, and given this court, that result would be exceptionally bad.
Of course, he says all of this as if it’s a bad thing.
Now, he’s not wrong that there’s nothing limiting the Supreme Court to just this particular question. Hypothetically, they could well gut Section 922 entirely. There’s nothing to stop them.
However, generally speaking, that’s not how the Supreme Court rolls.
Instead, they generally stick to the questions before them. In this case, the use of marijuana and gun ownership. They could potentially extend this out to include any illicit drug use, but let’s be real here. Look at the Supreme Court makeup for a moment. Does anyone think a conservative court is going to do anything that looks like they’re condoning heroin users owning guns?
Marijuana has been legalized to some degree or another in many states throughout the nation. This is a very different circumstance, which is what raises the question in the first place.
It’s unlikely that the same Court that ruled the way it did in Rahimi is going to overturn all the prohibitions on gun ownership, especially for felons in general or those with dishonorable discharges.
Mystal is declaring this a trap, but that’s his own hang-ups regarding the Court playing with his view more than anything else.
Then again, Mystal is such a partisan who has always been on the left that he can’t really imagine a scenario where the right isn’t the evil overlords he envisions them being, turning his worst nightmares into reality.
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