Guns and Marijuana: US v. Cooper

[raellic]

If you're currently an alcoholic, you can buy and have a gun, but you cannot get a CCW (see PC 26202(a)(8) and item 8 on the standard application form -- CCW is denied to alcoholics by statute). The regulations for Form 4473 state that alcohol is not a controlled substance, and there appears to be nothing in the regulations about alcoholics. That makes sense to me because there are tons of high-functioning alcoholics out there, I just don't want them walking around buzzed with their CCW guns, or doing shots at a bar and then putting their guns back on to drive home. Marijuana is in a different category-- if you are a user of drugs and buy a gun, on top of all the other concerns with safety, judgment, etc., you have made a conscious choice to disregard the law and then lie about it under penalty of perjury when you know the answer is important and would disqualify you. The U.S. government is highly unlikely to ever remove Marijuana from the DEA schedules, especially while the government is trending toward law and order as the current administration is doing. So this looks like the state of things for the next decade, or more.