Veteran Denied Gun Purchase for Treating PTSD with Medical Marijuana

Sadly, most of us saw this coming: Buy “legal” marijuana and find yourself denied the right to purchase a firearm. Which is where retired Air Force veteran Kim Petters reportedly finds herself now.

Kim Petters served in the Air Force for ten years and deployed overseas, now retired in Delaware, she legally uses medical marijuana to help with PTSD.

Petters also wants to buy a gun. But that’s something she can’t do.

‘I follow doctors orders and state laws,’ Kim Petters said.

‘Cannabis is the only medication in the entire U.S. that makes you choose between medicine or second amendment rights, and that’s just not fair,’ Petters said.

Federal law still considers marijuana—even legalized by a state—a controlled substance and anybody applying to buy a gun have to say if they’re a user on the ATF’s background check form.

‘So if I lie on that form, and say no, I’ve created an entirely different felony, which could land me five years in jail. But if I say yes, I’m denied purchase,’ Petters said.

This is just one of the problems with a powerful centralized government — something our Founders understood all too well. It also illustrates the trouble with allowing government to regulate pretty much everything, rather than allowing citizens to live freely and make their own choices.

The heritage foundation’s Amy Swearer, a second amendment attorney, says lawsuits over this have never made it past lower-level courts because federal law supersedes state law.

‘I think ultimately it’s going to come down to a change in federal policy,’ Swearer said.

So far, Petters says she’s chosen the cannabis over a gun but hopes someday, she and so many other Americans won’t have to make that choice.

‘I want the right to feel safe, I want the right to defend myself, I want my second amendment rights that I fought for,’ Petters said.

Yeah, so do we. Don’t feel lonesome though; they’ll soon ban all our guns anyhow.

‘Murica.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.