In U.S. v. Hemani, the Supreme Court will decide if Section 922(g)(3) of the federal code, which prohibits the possession of firearms by all “unlawful” users of drugs, violates the Second Amendment; either in every circumstance or specifically in the case of defendant Ali Danial Hemani.
As we’ve discussed, the gun control lobby has zipped its collective lips over the Court’s decision to address this question, most likely because there are plenty of pro-legalization voices on the left who don’t like the idea of throwing a grandmother in prison for eating a THC gummy to help her deal with the side effects of chemotherapy just because she also keeps a revolver for self-defense.
The law also likely has a disproportionate impact on minorities, which is another reason for liberals who might otherwise support all kinds of gun control laws to be skeptical of this one. Still, progressive legal commentator Elie Mystal is warning his fellow lefties not to fall into the “trap” posed by Hemani.
The case has always-online lefties arguing that an expansion of gun rights is the correct political and legal outcome, but that is getting things all twisted.
… The hypocrisy of this law is flagrant. Alcoholics are allowed to own guns. In some counties, you can stumble from your local bar to your local gun shop and be strapped before closing time. It is absurd that a person who is too drunk to operate a car is allowed to carry a gun on their person, but a weed smoker is not allowed to keep a gun in their house. Do you know how many mass shootings have been committed by people who were high on weed? My guess is zero… they all decided to shoot up the place tomorrow.
So, uh… where’s the trap? Mystal himself says the law is hypocritical, since federal statute is silent on the ability of alcoholics to possess and purchase firearms. Mystal claims that the Trump administration probably wouldn’t have even appealed the Fifth Circuit’s decision dismissing the charges against Hemani on the grounds that 933(g)(3) violated his Second Amendment rights were it not for the prosecution against Hunter Biden for purchasing and possessing a revolver while actively using crack.
I cannot prove that the Hunter Biden situation had anything to do with the Trump administration’s decision to appeal this case. But everything I know about this small, petty, vindictive administration tells me that it’s pursuing this case to make it look like there was some deep legal principle behind its persecution of the former president’s son. Call it a hunch. Without Hunter, it makes no sense for this administration to appeal a ruling from the most conservative appellate court in the country that further extends Second Amendment rights in Texas.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Trump administration’s appeal makes more sense. That’s because the lower courts are all over the map on how to apply Section 922 nowadays.
Mystal just disproved his own conspiratorial take. The fact that there’s at least a four-way circuit court split on how to apply 922(g)(3) made it an almost certainty that the DOJ was going to appeal Hemani’s dismissal. And the fact that Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the Court to take this case instead of one involving a more sympathetic defendant (Sauer’s cert petition brings up the fact that Hemani has been on the FBI’s radar for supposedly supporting Iranian terror groups) indicates the DOJ really does want to see the law upheld… and not just because Hunter Biden was prosecuted for violating the statute.
And as it turns out, Mystal is actually on the side of the Trump administration when it comes to Section 922(g)(3).
I mentioned that Section 922 G-3 is the statute that bans guns for drug users and people with drug addictions. Anybody want to know what some of the other numbers in that section of law address? The law is part of the Gun Control Act of 1968. It was passed as a response to all of the political assassinations of the 1960s (there was a time in this country when we addressed political violence by strengthening gun laws instead of going on podcasts). Subsection G creates categories of people prohibited from owning firearms. G-2 bans guns for fugitives from justice. G-6 bans people who were dishonorably discharged from the military from continuing to own guns. G-8 deals with the people subject to restraining orders. G-9 bans guns from people convicted of domestic violence. Having the Supreme Court throw out G-3 opens the door for them to throw out a whole bunch of stuff in that law, and given this court, that result would be exceptionally bad.
I don’t think that’s going to happen, but regardless, the Court should strike down any federal statute that doesn’t comport with the national tradition of gun ownership in this country. Mystal, though, would prefer a Democrat-controlled Congress repeal 922(g)(3) instead, even if there’s virtually no evidence that a majority of Democrats would ever take such a step.
Mystal believes that “the expansion of gun rights is never the right answer,” which has boxed him into a corner here. He claims that we should be focused instead on the decriminalization of drug addiction, but that’s precisely why 922(g)(3) is so problematic. It treats “unlawful” drug use and addiction of narcotics as a reason to put gun owners in prison, while leaving them free to abuse alcohol as much as they can without their Second Amendment rights being impacted.
Section 922(g)(3) is problematic from both a pro-Second Amendment standpoint and one that is critical of the War on Drugs. The fact that Mystal refuses to recognize that shows that he’s fallen victim to another trap; a gun control ideology that refuses to condemn even the most obvious and basic infringements of a civil right, even when it results in people being thrown in prison for nothing more than possessing pot and a pistol at the same time.
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