Lisa Murkowski went against legalizing cannabis in Alaska. However, the people passed a ballot measure that legalized marijuana in 2014, and now the same Republican who serves the state as its senior U.S. senator would like for their vote to be regarded by the federal government. More specifically, Murkowski is worried about a federal law that evidently does not allow people who use cannabis to legally buy and use guns, even if their marijuana consumption is completely in line with the rules of the land. In a letter to United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Murkowski asked the Department of Justice to make a review of federal policy on the issue.
“It is my judgment that denying Americans the personal Second Amendment right to possess firearms as articulated by the Supreme Court…for the mere use of marijuana pursuant to state law is arbitrarily overbroad and should be narrowed,” the senator stated.
Federal law states that “It shall be unlawful for any person…who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance…to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”
“In my judgment the disqualification of an entire class of marijuana users acting consistently with state law from possessing any firearm merits a view of federal legal policy,” Murkowski writes. “Without such a review I fear that otherwise law abiding citizens will choose to answer the marijuana use question on Form 4473 [because]either they believe their use is fully lawful or because they believe marijuana use consistent with state law should not subject them to a firearms disability. In either case, they would be potentially exposed to criminal liability for false statements.”
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