For years, Americans who relied on medical marijuana for pain, PTSD, or epilepsy faced an impossible choice: their medicine or their gun rights.
If you had a prescription card, federal law said you were automatically “prohibited” from owning or purchasing firearms. It wasn’t a choice. It was coercion.
That rule, enforced through Section 11E of the ATF’s Form 4473, meant tens of thousands of patients were barred from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Answer “yes” on the form, and you were instantly denied. Lie about it, and you risked federal prosecution. Even worse, the restriction didn’t just block new gun sales — it meant existing gun owners with medical marijuana cards were technically barred from keeping the firearms they already owned.
The message from the government was clear: if you treat your condition with cannabis, you’re suddenly too “dangerous” to be trusted with a gun.
The Court’s Ruling
That changed in Florida when a federal court ruled that the prohibition violated the Constitution. The government, the court found, failed to show that medical marijuana patients posed a unique danger to themselves or others.
Simply being on the state’s medical marijuana registry was not enough to strip citizens of their rights.
The court’s logic undercut years of federal policy. It recognized that alcohol — long linked to domestic violence and deadly crime — has never been treated this way.
As Colion Noir noted, you can drink a handle of whiskey every night, pass out drunk, and as long as you check “no” on a form, you can still legally purchase a firearm. Yet a cancer patient lighting up a prescribed joint was branded unfit for ownership. That’s not safety. That’s hypocrisy.
Rights Aren’t Popularity Contests
Noir made it plain: this was never about safety. It was about control. He doesn’t like marijuana — hates the smell, hates the culture around it — but that’s irrelevant.
Rights don’t hinge on whether you like the people exercising them. A right that disappears because of your medicine isn’t a right at all. It’s a permission slip.
The ruling brings much-needed consistency. If you’re high or drunk, you already can’t legally carry. That’s common sense. But banning people altogether for what’s in their bloodstream off-duty was bureaucratic overreach.
Why It Matters
This decision matters because it sets a precedent. If the government can take away your rights over cannabis, what’s next? ADHD medication? Insulin? Any prescription that bureaucrats decide might impair judgment? The slippery slope is obvious, and the court’s pushback is a major correction.
For the 2A community, it’s another example of why vigilance matters. Politicians and agencies will always look for new ways to chip away at rights. But as this case shows, the courts are starting to catch up — and call BS when the logic doesn’t hold.
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