​A Washington state medical marijuana activist — who nearly killed an armed intruder in his home this month — has been barred from buying guns, even though he says he has no criminal record.

Steve Sarich of CannaCare said he tried to buy a shotgun and a pistol a few days after the March 15 shootout at his home, to replace guns that were seized by investigators, reports Gene Johnson of The Associated Press . But Sarich said he failed the background check.

Sarich got an email from the King County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, attempting to explain the denial. It says Sarich showed law enforcement officers his paperwork as a medical marijuana patient — and those papers create a presumption that Sarich is an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance.

Sarich is a legal medical marijuana patient under Washington’s medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1998.

The sheriff’s office said that since federal law says using a “controlled substance” disqualifies someone from passing a background check for gun purchases, Sarich can’t buy any more firearms.

Sarich said he finds it absurd that medical marijuana patients should have to give up their Second Amendment rights.