Lawmaker Drafting Bill to Remove Marijuana Question from ATF Gun Form

With marijuana increasingly legal across the country, a Republican lawmaker is looking to take federal gun regulators out of the equation.

Although marijuana is legal for adults in nines states, and as medical cannabis in 30, it remains listed as a highly-addictive and dangerous Schedule I drug with the federal government. It also shares the same designation as ecstasy, heroin, and LSD. This has resulted in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives maintaining a status quo that any sale or possession of firearms by those who use marijuana, even if allowed by state law, remains criminal.

However, one GOP Congressman says the best way around this, for now, could be to just not ask the question. “I’ve drafted, but haven’t yet introduced, a bill to remove the marijuana question from ATF form 4473 — the question that requires anyone who uses marijuana (crime) to lie (crime) in order to purchase a gun (crime) from a gun dealer,” said U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asking on social media if, “Any Democrats who would support such a bill?”