NEWPORT NEWS ( WAVY ) — In states where marijuana is legal, you can have a gun and use it, but not both.
Billy Jackson, an attorney, said that it didn’t matter if you were a Virginian, a regular Virginian, who used marijuana on a regular basis, whether lawfully or illegally. You can’t own a gun because, under federal law, you’ve pointed out, it is still illegal to possess marijuana.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Form 4473 asks a number of “yes or no”, yes-or-no questions. In every state, gun buyers are required to fill out this form. It is a federal offense to lie on the form.
Portsmouth Sheriff Michael Moore said, “The federal government continues to view marijuana use the same way they do heroin or cocaine.” Moore worked as a special ATF agent on cases involving drug and firearm trafficking.
Federal prosecutors think Deja Taylor violated a federal law when she purchased a 9 millimeter handgun in July 2022 from Winfree Firearms. Six months later, her 6-year-old would shoot Abby Zwerner at an elementary school in Virginia with the gun she bought.
Taylor pleaded guilty in a recent case to two federal charges, including making a false declaration when purchasing a gun as well as possessing a weapon while using marijuana illegally.
Jackson stated, “That is why these laws are in place.” To hold them accountable for their firearm possession as well as the dangers that may arise from it. “And here, the harm that resulted was just devastating.”
Jackson served as a federal prosecutor in the United States for over six years. Jackson brought the same charges against a number of defendants. Most often, he was looking to remove violent criminals from the streets.
Jackson stated that it was easy to convict a person of the charge.
ATF sent a warning late last month after Minnesota legalized marijuana for recreational use. Marijuana users are prohibited from possessing firearms, and also receiving, transporting or shipping firearms, ammunition, etc.
It’s not enough to smoke a joint once to make purchasing a firearm illegal. Jackson said that to prove these charges, prosecutors would have to show that the person regularly uses marijuana.
You must use it regularly. He said that daily use was preferred. You must show that you used it within a week or fewer of being caught with the firearm. They used it within one or two days or even a week after being caught with a firearm. “For example, the gold-standard is when they are found with the gun in one pocket but drugs in another.”
Federal law prohibits medical marijuana users from owning guns.
Moore said that the ATF Form 4473 is “explained pretty clearly, and has a warning”: the use or possession marijuana remains illegal under federal law regardless if it was legalized or decriminalized in your state for recreational or medicinal purposes.
Air travelers may also have problems with the same federal marijuana view.
He continued, “I hope that in the very near term, this form and the federal governments will be able address that change.”
