## Facts

- Charleston police investigated complaints of suspected drug activity at a two-unit building where Benjamin Tod Carter lived.
- During a knock-and-talk, Carter allowed officers to enter his apartment; officers smelled marijuana and questioned him.
- Carter admitted he had been smoking marijuana and had used it for about 15 years.
- Officers found marijuana, partially smoked blunts, a digital scale, and cash in different denominations.
- Carter told officers he had two firearms (a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver) in his closet, purchased about a week earlier for self-defense.
- The government charged Carter with possessing firearms while being an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3).
- Carter moved to dismiss the indictment on Second Amendment grounds; the district court denied the motion, and Carter entered a conditional guilty plea.
- In a prior appeal, the Fourth Circuit remanded for the government to develop evidence supporting the fit between § 922(g)(3) and the government’s asserted public-safety interest.
- On remand, the district court held an evidentiary hearing, accepted the government’s studies and materials, and reinstated the conviction.

## Issues

1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carter, a long-term marijuana user who possessed firearms for self-defense.
2. Whether the government’s evidentiary showing established a “reasonable fit” between disarming unlawful drug users and the objective of preventing gun violence under intermediate scrutiny.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment and upheld Carter’s conviction.
- The court applied intermediate scrutiny, treating preventing gun violence and protecting the community as important governmental objectives.
- The court held the government adequately showed a reasonable fit between § 922(g)(3) and the asserted objectives, based on empirical materials and legislative judgments linking unlawful drug use with elevated violence risk and impaired judgment.
- The court concluded § 922(g)(3) was constitutionally applied to Carter because his admitted, ongoing marijuana use placed him within the statute’s targeted class.

## Legal Principles

- Second Amendment challenges in the Fourth Circuit use a two-step inquiry: (1) whether the law burdens conduct within the Amendment’s scope; and (2) if so, whether the law survives the appropriate level of scrutiny.
- Regulations that do not severely burden the core Second Amendment right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to possess firearms for defense are generally reviewed under intermediate scrutiny.
- Under intermediate scrutiny, the government must show an important objective and a reasonable fit between the challenged law and that objective; the government need not prove a perfect empirical or causal fit.
- A firearms prohibition limited to current “unlawful user[s] of or addicted to” controlled substances may be justified by evidence and common-sense judgments that ongoing unlawful drug use increases the dangers of firearm possession.

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit held that, under intermediate scrutiny, the government’s evidence supported a reasonable fit between disarming unlawful drug users under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) and the goal of reducing gun violence, and therefore the statute did not violate the Second Amendment as applied to Carter.


United States v. Carter, 750 F.3d 462 (4th Cir. 2014)