CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Court Upholds Ban on Gun Sales to Marijuana Card Holders.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came in a lawsuit filed by S. Rowan Wilson, a Nevada woman who said she tried to buy a firearm for self-defense in 2011 after having obtained a medical marijuana card. The gun store refused, citing the federal rule banning the sale of firearms to illegal drug users.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told gun sellers they can assume that a person with a medical marijuana card uses the drug.

The 9th Circuit said in its 3-0 decision that Congress reasonably concluded that marijuana and other drug use “raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated.”

The 9th Circuit would probably give its judicial blessing to most any reason to stop the sale of even a single firearm, but that’s not what’s interesting about this ruling.

Smokers with a “legitimate” need for THC in California and other medical marijuana states lose their 2nd Amendment rights simply for having a doctor’s prescription. But in states like Colorado and Washington, there would seem to be no similar infringement on recreational users who just enjoy getting high.