In Oklahoma, a U.S. District judge struck down a federal law that prohibited marijuana users from owning firearms, declaring that the law was in violation of the Second Amendment.
As the Washington Free Beacon reports, Judge Patrick Wyrick made his ruling last week in the case of Jared Harrison, a man who was arrested in May of 2022 for possession of marijuana, and who was subsequently charged with being in violation of the law that makes it illegal for ‘unlawful users or addicts of controlled substances’ to possess firearms.”
“Harrison’s mere status as a user of marijuana,” Judge Wyrick wrote, ultimately did not “justif[y] stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm.” The ruling resulted in the dismissal of the indictments against Harrison.
In his ruling, Judge Wyrick directly cited the recent Supreme Court case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruens, a landmark Second Amendment decision last year which determined that requiring someone to provide “special needs” for purchasing or owning a firearm is unconstitutional. In that case, an over 100-year-old law was overturned that had long dictated that residents of New York had to provide a specific reason for trying to purchase a firearm for self-defense reasons.
In its argument in favor of keeping the law, the Biden Administration claimed that marijuana users should still be banned from owning guns because they are “no different” than, and “similarly virtuous” to, convicted felons.
In a statement after the ruling, Harrison’s attorney, Laura Deskin, declared that Judge Wyrick’s decision “is a step in the right direction for a large number of marijuana-using Americans who deserve the right to bear arms and protect their homes just like any other American.”