Federal judge in Oklahoma blocks marijuana users from possessing guns

On January 10, 2021, people line up to buy guns and ammunition at the Ready Gunner gun store in Orem, Utah. A federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded that a federal law banning marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, citing a US Supreme Court ruling last year that significantly expanded gun rights.

A former Republican president Donald Trump was appointee of US District Judge Patrick Wyrick, an appointee of former Republican president Donald Trump in Oklahoma City, dismissed an indictment against a man accused in August of violating that ban, saying it infringed his right to bear arms under the US Constitution's Second Amendment.

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Wyrick said that while the government can protect the public from dangerous people possessing guns, it doesn't have to argue that Jared Harrison's mere status as a user of marijuana is enough to strip him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm. He said that using marijuana was not in itself a violent, forceful, or threatening act, and that Oklahoma is one of a number of states where the drug can be legally bought for medical purposes.

Wyrick wrote that the use of marijuana carries no of the characteristics that the Nation's history and tradition of firearms regulation supports.

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Laura Deskin, a public defender for Harrison, said the ruling was a step in the right direction for a large number of Americans who deserve the right to bear arms and protect their homes like any other American. She said marijuana was the most commonly used drug at the federal level.

The US Department of Justice is likely to appeal the decision, even though it didn't respond to a request for comment.

The decision came after the US Supreme Court'sUS Supreme Court's 6 -- 3 conservative majority ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person's right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.

The New York State Rifle Pistol Association v. Bruen said that restrictions must be consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearms, as a new test for assessing firearms laws. READ MORE: 6 dead in US shooting, including 6 month-old baby, mother.

On Thursday, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans cited a decision to state that a federal law barring people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms was unconstitutional.