Murkowski protests gun limits for marijuana users

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is protesting the federal government’s restrictions on firearms and ammunition sales to legal marijuana users.

A Friday report in the Wall Street Journal indicated that Murkowski was inspired when she got a new Benelli 12-gauge shotgun as a gift from her family. When she went to pick it up, she had to fill out a federal background form that asked if she used marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes — something legal in Alaska. If she answered “yes,” she would be unable to get the gun.

Murkowski doesn’t use marijuana and opposed its legalization, but now that it is legal in the 49th state and polls indicate a significant majority of Alaskans support legalization, she said she doesn’t like the idea that the federal government could restrict firearm ownership via something that is legal in Alaska.

In a March letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Murkowski said it “is my judgment that denying Americans the personal Second Amendment right … for mere use of marijuana … is arbitrarily overboard and should be narrowed.”

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