The ruling was made by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose region includes seven Western states. (Colorado is not among them.)
The decision came in a case in Nevada, where a woman with a medical marijuana card tried to buy a gun for self-defense. A gun store refused, citing a federal rule banning gun sales to illegal drug users.
According to The Associated Press, “The 9th Circuit in its 3-0 decision said it was reasonable for federal regulators to assume a medical marijuana card holder was more likely to use the drug” — and therefore present a danger if allowed to carry a firearm.
According to the ruling, Congress has reasonably concluded that marijuana and other drug use “raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated.”
