Seems I'm not the only one pondering the question of firearm ownership:

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Kirkland shoot-out aftermath proves medical marijuana dilemma requires legislative fix - Dave Workman

The case of Kirkland medical marijuana activist Steve Sarich suggests that there may be something fundamentally wrong with federal firearm statutes that penalize people who have not been found guilty of a crime or adjudicated to be mentally incompetent.

Instead, they are simply “disqualified” from possessing firearms, as noted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's on-line edition, even if it might mean – as it could in Sarich’s case – that they are rendered unable to defend themselves from home invasion robbers who might kill them. This much has already been established in the Sarich case, because he traded shots with one of four thugs who broken into his home March 15. Sarich critically wounded one of the perpetrators, and another of the group slightly wounded him with a round from the stolen shotgun he was carrying.


Sarich, 59, said he tried to buy a shotgun and a pistol a few days after the March 15 shootout to replace ones seized by investigators. He said he has no criminal record but failed the background check because of federal laws prohibiting "unlawful users" of controlled substances from buying or otherwise receiving guns. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.


The March 15 gunfight was the second case involving Sarich and King County. An earlier case from January also figures into this situation, because at that time, Sarich disclosed to investigators that he has a medical marijuana certificate after one of the deputies smelled pot.

In the aftermath of the March 15 shooting, which I wrote about here, Sarich’s two .22-caliber pistols and a pair of other firearms in the Kirkland residence were taken as evidence by King County Sheriff’s detectives, which is standard procedure. Sarich, realizing his vulnerability, subsequently tried to purchase a shotgun and handgun, but because he is a medical marijuana user – legal under this state’s statutes – he is “disqualified” from even possessing, much less buying, a firearm by federal statute.

King County sent a copy of its report on the Sarich incident to the National Instant Check System, operated by the FBI, which promptly denied the gun purchase. Federal law has no exemption for medical marijuana users. The law classifies marijuana in the same realm as heroin, period.


Sarich runs CannaCare, an organization that claims 7,000 members in the state. It helps patients with legal advice, runs clinics where patients can meet with doctors who authorize marijuana use, provides patients with marijuana clones or starter plants and delivers about 50 patients a week with usable marijuana, he said.


This column takes no position on the use of medical marijuana. This case presents a tidal wave of irony because the only recourse for Sarich and people like him to not be legally stripped of their gun rights is to get the law changed. To accomplish that, medical marijuana users in this state will have to approach lawmakers who are no friends of gun rights.

At the federal level, that would be Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Representatives Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott and Rick Larsen, all Democrats. Their party currently controls Congress and the White House. But ask any of them if they would push for a change in the federal marijuana statute so people like Sarich could legally possess a gun for self-defense, and chances of a warm reception fall somewhere between zero and zilch.

Seattle’s FBI spokesman Fred Gutt put this in the proper perspective. Federal statute has no exemption for medical marijuana users. Under federal law, medical marijuana use is no different than smoking pot just to get stoned, or shooting heroin to get high. It is the “illegal use of a controlled substance” in the eyes of the federal law. That’s why Sarich got flagged in the NICS check, and denied his gun purchase. His dilemma is getting mixed reviews from Seattle Times readers, who are very divided on the issue.

State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), who recently insisted that it is time medical marijuana patients get “complete protection” from prosecution, is one of Olympia’s most ardent gun prohibitionists. Kohl-Welles might be horrified if Sarich asked her to help him fix the law so he could arm himself for defense against another home invasion robbery. “Complete protection” in her mind might not be so “complete” after all.


It is time to provide qualified medical-marijuana patients complete protection under the law and to directly regulate the production and dispensing of cannabis. Patients should not have to fear arrest, home searches or property seizures by law-enforcement officers. Providers who want to help patients access medical marijuana should not have to risk prosecution and robbery.—State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles


In the middle of this quagmire fall the law enforcement agencies. Sarich is angry at the King County Sheriff’s Office for sharing information on his case with the NICS system. However, King County and the FBI are stuck with having to enforce gun laws that are supported by – you guessed it – the same people to whom Sarich would have to take his cause. Sheriffs and FBI agents didn’t pass those laws, politicians did.

Besides, as sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart noted, Sarich “has been quite open with the press… as to his status as a medical marijuana patient.” Being high profile can put you on more than one radar screen, as it were, and FBI agents are certainly capable of reading.

If there is to be any relief for Sarich and others like him, it probably would be through the legislative process. If a person legitimately uses medical marijuana to address a medical problem, the argument goes, there should be no way his or her gun rights can be stripped. One should not sacrifice a civil right or their personal safety for using a controversial remedy that is legal in more than a dozen states.

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