Administration's mixed message on guns and medical marijuana sows confusion

     Medical marijuana, at The Green Door dispensary in San
     Francisco. The Obama  administration will not seek to arrest
     medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform
     to state laws, under new policy guidelines sent to federal
     prosecutors last October. (AP photo/Jeff Chiu--click photo to
     enlarge)

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Sean Merritt, an honorably discharged veteran suffering chronic pain stemming from a botched surgery performed by a military doctor, is a law-abiding California resident.  He is also a marijuana user who wants to own a firearm.

Gun shop manager Patrick Jones says he wants to sell as many firearms as he can.

But Jones won't do business with known medical cannabis patients, such as Army Spc. Sean Merritt, an honorably discharged and disabled veteran.

This upsets Mr. Merritt, who maintains that his use of a legal (under California law) medication poses no legal obstacle (again, under California law) to his legal ownership and use of firearms.

That refusal has drawn criticism from Merritt and other medical marijuana advocates, who have twice gone to Redding City Council chambers to denounce Jones, who happens to be mayor, for violating patients' rights.

Although I understand Mr. Merritt's frustration, I think he misses the mark in "denouncing" Mr. Jones (the gun shop manager).  While it seems true that such a gun sale would not run afoul of any California laws, things are rather different with regard to the feds.  When Mr. Merritt honestly answered, on the ATF Form 4473, "yes," to the question about using "any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance," any licensed dealer who let the sale proceed would be risking serious trouble with the BATFE.

So am I advocating guns in the hands of people high on drugs?  Not at all, any more than I advocate guns in the hands of drunk people--but use of alcohol is not seen as a disqualifiier for gun ownership. The prescription pain killers that had been prescribed to Mr. Merritt left him "feeling like a zombie," and he claims greater functionality while using marijuana than he experienced with the more politically acceptable medication.

Use of that medication, if prescribed by a physician, would ironically not be a disqualifying factor for gun ownership.

I have written before about "the Obama administration's split personality on state sovereignty" with regard to guns and medical marijuana.  This is a reference to the administration's instructions to federal prosecutors not to pursue cases against users and dispensers of medical marijuana in compliance with state law, despite it being a violation of federal law.

A White House spokesman repeated Obama's view that "federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws."

At the same time, states that have passed some version of the "Firearms Freedom Act" have been told by the BATFE that those laws will be ignored.

This kind of confusion is inevitable when the federal government agrees not to usurp state sovereignty on one issue, but insists on just such a usurpation on another, when it collides with the first.  The solution is to obey the Tenth Amendment, and honor state sovereignty on all issues for which there is no Constitutionally recognized federal authority.