[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that the federal ban against selling guns to medical marijuana card holders does not violate Second Amendment rights. The court rejected [AP report] the legal challenge from Nevada by a vote of 3-0 upon a finding that medical marijuana is still prohibited by federal law and may impair the judgement of gun owners. The court further supported the stance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) [official website] that firearms dealers have reasonable cause to believe that medical card holders likely use unlawful drugs and are therefore justified in denying them sale. The court’s ruling will apply to all nine states in the Ninth Circuit including California and Washington.

Gun control and the Second Amendment continue to be controversial topics across the US. Earlier this month the New Jersey Second Amendment Society [advocacy website] filed [JURIST report] a lawsuit against the state’s Attorney General in New Jersey’s district court alleging the state’s stun gun ban is unconstitutional. In June the Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that a state law conviction on reckless domestic assault is sufficient to bar possession of a firearm under federal law. Earlier in June Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a bill [JURIST report] requiring gun owners to be listed on an FBI database, notifying police if a Hawaii citizen is arrested in another state and providing a continuous criminal record check on those individuals seeking to possess a firearm. Also in June the US Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST report] in two separate cases challenging bans on assault-style weapons. The court denied the appeals without comment, letting stand lower court rulings that had upheld the bans [JURIST report] as constitutional. In response to the mass killing in Orlando in June, the UN’s top human rights official urged [JURIST report] the US to increase its gun control measures. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held [JURIST report] in June that the right to carry a concealed gun is not within Second Amendment right to bear arms.