A federal agency is moving to loosen rules that bar people who consume marijuana and other illegal drugs from being able to lawfully purchase and possess guns by making it so fewer people would be affected.
The new interim final rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) seeks to update the definition of “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” under an existing policy that has been interpreted to deny Second Amendment rights to people who have used illegal substances a single time within the past year.
The filing, set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case challenging the constitutionality of the ban, known in statute as 922(g)(3).
“This is an interim measure to address the harm to constitutional rights caused by erroneously denying a person a firearm while ATF further assesses whether new examples might be useful or feasible, given the variety of case-by-case fact patterns,” the filing says.
Under an earlier 1997 ATF rule, federal officials using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to determine eligibility for gun purchases have “found prohibited use when, within the past year, the person has
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