{"id":48041,"date":"2021-03-11T19:28:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/should-marijuana-use-prohibit-gun-ownership\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T02:28:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:28:49","slug":"should-marijuana-use-prohibit-gun-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/should-marijuana-use-prohibit-gun-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Should marijuana use prohibit gun ownership?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Robin
Robin Blanchard, co-owner of Kimo Vista Solutions, a gun shop in Farmington, holds the popular CZ Scorpion 9mm semi-automatic gun Wednesday at her store. People who admit to using marijuana can be denied the purchase of a gun, even though many states have legalized the drug.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 As more states move to legalize marijuana, use of the Schedule 1 controlled substance remains a barrier for Americans seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.<\/p>\n

That is because use of the drug, either medicinally or recreationally, remains illegal under federal law and is a disqualifying factor for someone seeking to purchase a firearm.<\/p>\n

Before purchasing a firearm, buyers must complete a form as part of a background check that is submitted to the FBI. Box 21.e of that form asks: \u201cAre you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug or any other substance?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One
One of the questions a person is asked when applying to purchase a gun.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But with so many states legalizing medicinal and\/or recreational marijuana, the question can cause head-scratching.<\/p>\n

In New Mexico, marijuana is legal for medicinal use, and in Colorado, marijuana is legal for medicinal or recreational use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI leave it up to their interpretation,\u201d said Robin Blanchard, who owns the Kimo Vista Solutions gun shop in Farmington, along with her husband, Gordon. \u201cI\u2019m not here to interpret the questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the rest of the box reads: \u201cWarning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medical or recreational purposes in the states where you reside.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, checking yes, even for medicinal use, automatically disqualifies the potential buyer from being able to purchase a firearm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you designate that you use marijuana, even medicinal, it\u2019s still against federal law,\u201d Gordon Blanchard said. \u201cWe don\u2019t ask, but if someone says, \u2018Oh, yeah, I have a marijuana card,\u2019 we will not complete the transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t want to be the bad guy to say, \u2018Well, you told me\u2026 .\u2019 So we just always go, mmmmm,\u201d Robin Blanchard said, making a zipping-the-lips gesture.<\/p>\n

\"Robin
Robin Blanchard, co-owner of Kimo Vista Solutions, a gun shop in Farmington, talks on Wednesday about some of the guns at her store.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The rest of the application asks other questions, such as whether the buyer is a fugitive from justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you check on some of these, \u2018yes,\u2019 then that stops the process because this is a federal legal piece of paper that can be used against you in a court of law,\u201d Blanchard said. \u201cIf you check \u2018no,\u2019 that\u2019s your decision on how you want to answer it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an application is submitted, there are three outcomes: proceed to sell, deny and delay. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System can take up to three business days to review a person\u2019s application. If the shop doesn\u2019t hear from the system in three days, the shop can automatically sell to the applicant\/buyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not judge and jury,\u201d Blanchard said. \u201cSo if you interpret this as a \u2018no,\u2019 then check no, and we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanchard said she believes there are benefits to medicinal use, including for those who suffer with epilepsy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are some positive things that we need to seriously look at,\u201d Blanchard said.<\/p>\n

\"Robin
Robin Blanchard, co-owner of Kimo Vista Solutions, a gun shop in Farmington, shows off more of the guns at her store.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Blanchard said with more states legalizing, the government will eventually have to evaluate the background check question as it relates to marijuana use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between marijuana and alcohol?\u201d Blanchard said. \u201cYou know, we\u2019re kind of penalizing these people, especially if it is medicinally used, versus alcohol, because right now alcohol doesn\u2019t have any medicinal use reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanchard said that marijuana might even be a recovery tool to help people bounce back from the distressing ails of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

mmitchell@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

legalize drug, federal government still denies firearm purchases for pot users<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,150,28,135,138,29,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-firearms","tag-headlines","tag-marijuana","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48041"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}