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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration’s aggressive defense of gun rights has at least one exception.

The government’s lawyers want the Supreme Court to make clear that regular pot smokers – and other drug users − shouldn’t be allowed to own firearms.

An appeals court has said a federal law making it a crime for drug users to have a gun can’t be used against someone based solely on their past drug use.

Limiting the law to blocking the use of guns while a person is high effectively guts the statute that reduces gun violence, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court. They’re asking the justices to overturn the appeals court’s decision.

Trump's Justice Department has sided with gun owners in other cases

The department’s defense of the law is particularly notable as the Trump administration has sided with gun rights advocates in other cases – including one in which they declined to appeal a lower court's ruling against a federal law setting 21 as the minimum age to own a handgun.

But on the issue of drug use, the government is appealing four cases to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to focus on one involving a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan who was charged with unlawfully owning a Glock pistol because he regularly smoked marijuana.

 

The FBI had been monitoring Ali Danial Hemani because of his alleged connection to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which the government has designated a global terrorist group, according to filings. The government also alleges Hemani used and sold promethazine, an antihistamine used to treat allergies and motion sickness that can boost an opioid high, and used cocaine, although he was prosecuted based on his marijuana use.

Hemani’s attorneys said the government is trying to “inflame and disparage” Hemani’s character and the only facts that matter are that he was not high when the FBI found the Glock 19 in his Texas home.

Hemani was charged with violating the federal law that prohibits the possession of firearms by a person who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.”

 

Appeals court ruled past drug use not enough to stop gun ownership

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the law can’t be applied to Hemani under the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision that gun prohibitions must be grounded in history that is "consistent with our tradition of gun regulation."

While history and tradition support “some limits on a presently intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon,” the appeals court said, “they do not support disarming a sober person based solely on past substance usage.”

The Justice Department said the appeals court got it wrong.

Laws that existed at the time the country was founded restricted the rights of habitual drinkers, even when they were sober, they argued.

“And for about as long as legislatures have regulated drugs, they have prohibited the possession of arms by drug users and addicts – not just by persons under the influence of drugs,” they wrote.

Law used in hundreds of prosecutions, including Hunter Biden's

Since the federal government created its background-check system for firearms in 1998, the federal restriction on drug users has stopped more gun sales than any requirement other than the ban on felons and fugitives owning weapons, according to the filing.

And it’s used in hundreds of prosecutions each year, they said.

(Hunter Biden, who was later pardoned by his father during President Joe Biden’s final weeks in office, was convicted in 2024 of violating the law by purchasing a gun despite having a known drug addiction.)

Hunter Biden trial recap Joe Biden's son guilty on all charges in historic gun case

Hemani’s lawyers argue that the government’s interpretation of the law makes no sense when an estimated 19% of Americans have used marijuana and about 32% own a firearm. That means millions of Americans are violating the law that could put them behind bars for up to 15 years, they said in a filing.

The appeals court, Hemani’s lawyers said, correctly applied the Supreme Court’s past decisions and “common sense” to rule that “history and tradition only supports a ban on carrying firearms while intoxicated.”

In addition to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, two other appeals courts have issued rulings that restrict use of the federal ban: both courts ruled there should be individualized assessments of defendants' drug use to determine if their rights could be restricted.

Trump administration touts program to restore gun rights

The Justice Department argues that “marginal” cases are better addressed on a case-by-case basis, through a federal program the Trump administration restarted that lets individuals petition to have their gun rights restored.

The administration’s championship of that program makes it less surprising that the Justice Department is vigorously defending the ban on drug users having guns, said Andrew Willinger, executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, a research center.

In addition, the administration has shown a broad desire to crack down on illegal drug use.

“In some sense, when those two areas are colliding – gun rights and anti-drug policies – it looks like anti-drug policies are going to win out,” he said.

More: Supreme Court rules Mexico can't sue US gunmakers over cartel violence

Willinger said there’s a relatively strong chance the Supreme Court will get involved, which the justices tend to do when a lower court strikes down or restricts the application of a federal criminal law – especially if the government asks them to intervene.

But the high court could also wait to see how other appeals courts handle similar cases and how well the Justice Department’s program for restoring gun rights addresses these concerns, he said.

The court could announce whether it will take up the issue this fall.

 

  • Haha 1
Posted

Honestly, this is the kind of shit that needs to happen. Start infringing upon the rights of white folks that voted for this regime and let them get a taste of what’s happening to their fellow countrymen.

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Posted
Just now, royiv said:

Honestly, this is the kind of shit that needs to happen. Start infringing upon the rights of white folks that voted for this regime and let them get a taste of what’s happening to their fellow countrymen.

Fafo Findout GIF - Fafo Findout Fuckaround - Discover & Share GIFs

The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party

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Posted
10 minutes ago, midtown said:

I've got $100 that says there are eons more gun deaths from the combination of alcohol and guns than weed and guns

nobody will take that bet

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Posted
13 minutes ago, midtown said:

I've got $100 that says there are eons more gun deaths from the combination of alcohol and guns than weed and guns

Sure, but old white people don't think booze is "the gateway drug," sooooo...

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Posted
51 minutes ago, royiv said:

Honestly, this is the kind of shit that needs to happen. Start infringing upon the rights of white folks that voted for this regime and let them get a taste of what’s happening to their fellow countrymen.

Ha! This will be one of those escalatory charges they use subjectively to fuck the browns. Get pulled over with a gun? Well, I don't like it but you're not a felon and we live in an open carry state, so...What's that? There was half a joint in his ashtray? 20 years, no parole!!! 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Ha! This will be one of those escalatory charges they use subjectively to fuck the browns. Get pulled over with a gun? Well, I don't like it but you're not a felon and we live in an open carry state, so...What's that? There was half a joint in his ashtray? 20 years, no parole!!! 

Bingo - the law exists to bind but not protect the out groups, and protects but does not bind the in group

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Meh, I'd rather have weed than a gun

Timing is everything...

 

But yeah, substitute booze and I own way the fuck more of it than firearms.

Edited by Iceman
Posted

which states have legal MJ? 

which states pose the greatest threat to Trump's agenda and his coming attempt at a 3rd term?

There's your answer.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Foosters said:

which states have legal MJ? 

which states pose the greatest threat to Trump's agenda and his coming attempt at a 3rd term?

There's your answer.

That was darker than I expected. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Foosters said:

which states have legal MJ? 

which states pose the greatest threat to Trump's agenda and his coming attempt at a 3rd term?

There's your answer.

As far as the swing states:

AZ, MI, NV and OH are full legal

PA is medicinal only but its on the ballot this year

GA is restricted medical only

WI is still fully banned.

Posted

I remember one night in college a friend called me and asked to stop by. Of course my bro was my response. He showed up crying. Apparently he got round housed to the face by the ex of his new girlfriend. He was not much of a fighter and certainly did not know kung fu. His options were limited. He asked me if I had a gun. He said he was ready to kill this man.

Instead, I pulled out the bubbler and we got high as balls. We watched Family Guy, laughed, and ate some oven baked pizzas. 

He reflected on the situation and determined there was lots of pussy to be had and while getting kicked in the face was unfortunate he would be ok. 
 

I kind of forgot my point, but, I’d say the weed helped. 

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Posted
9 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

But the high court could also wait to see how other appeals courts handle similar cases and how well the Justice Department’s program for restoring gun rights addresses these concerns, he said.

 

someone vision GIF

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Posted (edited)

It's a fine line to cross.  Back in college, I was banging this gal, and she dumped me for some pothead. When I stopped by to pick up my stuff, said pothead mouthed off and I gave him a roundhouse kick to the face.  It was perfect and the only time all of my martial arts training as a kid paid off, and of course there were no camera phones back then so nobody got a good video of it, which sucks because people think I'm making it up.  Anyways, the little shit started crying and talking about how if he had a gun he'd kill me, and he was going to get his buddy's gun and I'd pay for what I did, etc. so I just described in graphic detail the last time I had sex with his girlfriend/my-ex, and then left him crying.

I doubt he had any friends who had guns, and even if he had access to one, I doubt he'd have the balls to confront somebody, but he should be on this list because he was an idiot.

edit: I don't spel so gud.

 

Edited by atomheartbevo
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Posted
3 hours ago, That Guy said:

I remember one night in college a friend called me and asked to stop by. Of course my bro was my response. He showed up crying. Apparently he got round housed to the face by the ex of his new girlfriend. He was not much of a fighter and certainly did not know kung fu. His options were limited. He asked me if I had a gun. He said he was ready to kill this man.

Instead, I pulled out the bubbler and we got high as balls. We watched Family Guy, laughed, and ate some oven baked pizzas. 

He reflected on the situation and determined there was lots of pussy to be had and while getting kicked in the face was unfortunate he would be ok. 
 

I kind of forgot my point, but, I’d say the weed helped. 

 

8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's a fine line to cross.  Back in college, I was banging this gal, and she dumped me for some pothead. When I stopped by to pick up my stuff, said pothead mouthed off and I gave him a roundhouse kick to the face.  It was perfect and the only time all of my martial arts training as a kid paid off, and of course there were no camera phones back then so nobody got a good video of it, which sucks because people think I'm making it up.  Anyways, the little shit started crying and talking about how if he had a gun he'd kill me, and he was going to get his buddy's gun and I'd pay for what I did, etc. so I just described in graphic detail the last time I had sex with his girlfriend/my-ex, and then left him crying.

I doubt he had any friends who had guns, and even if he had access to one, I doubt he'd have the balls to confront somebody, but he should be on this list because he was an idiot.

edit: I don't spel so gud.

 

I think That Guy saved your life. 

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Posted
If more gun owners smoked weed, we'd have fewer shootings. 

Except the shootings aren’t from legal gun owners of said gun. I have about 25. None of my guns have killed anybody. Lucky I guess.
Posted
Just now, markstanco said:


Except the shootings aren’t from legal gun owners of said gun. I have about 25. None of my guns have killed anybody. Lucky I guess.

25?  Your pecker must be microscopic.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, markstanco said:


Except the shootings aren’t from legal gun owners of said gun. I have about 25. None of my guns have killed anybody. Lucky I guess.

Shall we pull out the statistics of how many gun crimes are committed with legally obtained firearms?

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Posted
34 minutes ago, markstanco said:


Except the shootings aren’t from legal gun owners of said gun. I have about 25. None of my guns have killed anybody. Lucky I guess.

Holy fuck you're a dumbass.

Posted
1 hour ago, markstanco said:

Except the shootings aren’t from legal gun owners of said gun. I have about 25. None of my guns have killed anybody. Lucky I guess.

25 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Holy fuck you're a dumbass.

No, he just can’t aim worth shit.

Posted
7 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

Does ICE, which receives more money than the Marines, test their moron agents for weed?

.

Federal job, so yes. I turned one down in 2023 bc I wasn’t gonna give it up. 

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