The Federal Government is Using Drug Policy to Erode the Second Amendment

Is the ATF trying to ensure that no marijuana “user” can purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer?

One of the cardinal rules of government is that “no matter how much power government has, it always wants more.”  Thus it has been for two-and-a-quarter centuries:  a constant battle between individual liberty and the drive by the federal government to limit – that is, control—individual freedom.

A favored tool by which the government achieves this control is its vast regulatory powers. The favored agency that Washington uses to control or limit the exercise of an individual’s right to possess a firearm, is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives—“ATF” for short.  Recently, the ATF has teamed with the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) to hammer individuals’ Second Amendment rights in those states that have loosened laws against the personal use of marijuana.

Ever since the “War on Drugs” formally entered the national lexicon in the early 1970s, marijuana has maintained its position in Schedule I of what the government defines as a “controlled substance.” Thus, regardless of how marijuana is treated under the law of any state, under federal law it has no recognized medical benefit and is subject to the highest potential for abuse. While more than two dozen states have passed some form of marijuana legalization for medical or recreational use, Uncle Sam has not budged in how he views marijuana, and reserves the right to prosecute persons for possessing the substance, even though they may do so in compliance with the laws of the state in which they live.