NRA urges SCOTUS to strike firearm prohibition aimed at marijuana users – Buckeye Firearms Association
The National Rifle Association, along with the Independence Institute and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief Jan. 30, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal prohibition on firearm possession by marijuana users.
The case, United States v. Hemani, challenges 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which bars firearm possession by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” The prohibition applies to marijuana users regardless of whether marijuana is legal under state law or used for medicinal purposes.
The court agreed to hear the case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held the ban unconstitutional as applied to Hemani, a marijuana user.
The amicus brief argues that banning firearm possession by marijuana users who are not intoxicated is unconstitutional because it lacks any grounding in America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Historically, legislatures addressed the risks associated with firearms and intoxicants through narrow, conduct-based restrictions — temporarily limiting the carry, use, or purchase of firearms while a person was intoxicated — rather than categorically disarming individuals based on their status as users. Laws that completely disarmed Americans were always based on dangerousness, yet in this case the government has made no serious effort to establish any connection between marijuana use and dangerousness.
© 2026 National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action. This may be reproduced. This may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.
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