When buying a firearm, checking the “yes” box on the form that asks if you’re an “unlawful user of, or addicted to,” marijuana or any other controlled substance is a quick way to have wasted your time shopping for a gun. A new proposal this month from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) seeks to give that question some wiggle room.
The ATF entry in the Federal Register proposes to change the drug question to ask if you’re a “compulsive” or “regular” user of a controlled substance “without a lawful prescription or in a manner substantially different from that prescribed by a licensed physician.”
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The agency said the change is to give “better medical accuracy.”
The rule would take effect on June 30.
Past versus present use
One of the most significant changes in the proposal is the consideration given toward the timing of someone’s use of illegal substances.
Current federal regulations disqualify anyone who has admitted to past drug use or possession, had a positive drug test or has been convicted of misdemeanor drug use. The proposed language shifts to use that is “continuing into the present.” ATF data shows single-incident drug use resulted in about half of all drug-based denials of gun purchases last fiscal year. The proposal is open to comments, something that has led to agencies changing course in the face of widespread criticism.
ATF data from the agency’s Federal Register entry
The change comes as nearly half of U.S. states have legalized recreational cannabis. As of 2026, Washington, D.C. and 24 states have either passed laws or approved ballot initiatives allowing recreational marijuana use. More than a dozen others allow medicinal cannabis use.
Court battles
ATF gave a nod to the series of ongoing legal battles over the Gun Control Act of 1968 and how appellate courts are interpreting gun rights and restrictions.
In U.S. v. Purdy, the Ninth Circuit Appellate Court ruled that the government had to prove the defendant was habitually using drugs, including up to the point where he had obtained a gun. That doesn’t mesh with the ATF’s current never-did-it standard.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in March for U.S. v. Hemani, a case in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the total ban on gun ownership for cannabis users was unconstitutional.
“For too long, the government has treated cannabis consumers like second-class citizens,” the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a Jan. 22 post to the organization’s site. “Neither past nor current cannabis use should automatically preclude someone from legal protections explicitly provided by the US Constitution.”
NORML, which advocates for reforming cannabis laws in the U.S., has long-called for a lifting of the federal ban on gun ownership for otherwise law-abiding marijuana users.
Several gun control advocacy groups have filed briefs in the Hemani case supporting the gun ownership ban for drug users.
Every Town for Gun Safety told the court in its filing that “restricting firearm use by illegal drug users is ‘as old as legislative recognition of the drug problem itself.’”
