New gun-control legislation would prohibit those arrested but not convicted of drug crimes from possessing firearms

Aaron Houston, director of government relations for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said adding even more penalties to those thousands of people arrested for marijuana “doesn’t do anything to solve the problem.”

“It makes criminals out of law-abiding Americans. Clearly, [similar drug policies] have not worked up until now,” said Houston. ”Heaping criminal penalties onto otherwise law-abiding Americans just because they possess a little bit of marijuana is a failed policy.”

The SSDP doesn’t have an official position on the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011, but Houston said that if the “arrest” language was removed, the group “certainly wouldn’t find it as problematic as we do now.”

The current National Instant Background Check System (NICS) only requires a check on those purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer. Gun-control advocates have pushed for those checks to include guns exchanged between individuals, which is often referred to as the “gun show loophole.” The addition of Schumer’s drug legislation plays directly off public fears that accused Tucson shooter Jared Loughner –  apart from allegedly being determined to kill no matter wat — also admitted to using marijuana. No research, however, has proven a causal link between marijuana use and violent acts.

New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy is expected to introduce a companion background check bill  — modeled after Schumer’s — in the House very soon. Houston called Schumer “terrible on this stuff,” and expressed dismay that McCarthy would include similar language in her bill. McCarthy’s office said it was moving forward carefully but wants to ensure that “the most dangerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to buy guns are in the NICS database.”

“Everyone agrees on the goals of the bills to require a background check for every sale and to make sure more names of people who should be in the database are actually put into the database,” said a spokesman for McCarthy. “As for any more specifics, that’s being discussed.”

Even the nation’s largest gun-control advocacy group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has problems with Schumer’s drug language.

“It’s a concern we’ve raised about this proposal, too. I’ve got the same concerns,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign. “[There is] the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty concept coming into play here. So that alone is a legitimate concern.”

Helmke said the Brady Campaign was working closely with McCarthy’s office, noting that the representative’s legislation hasn’t even been introduced yet.

“It’s not going to be introduced after this recess week, and they’re going to be making some changes,” said Helmke.

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