Hunter Biden Conviction Dissected

The recent conviction of Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges elicited a great wave of schadenfreude from the Right, coming as it did on the heels of New York’s partisan prosecution and phony conviction of former President Donald Trump.

And there’s little doubt that Hunter Biden is guilty as charged and convicted by the 12 good people who sat on the jury. After all, Hunter wrote in his memoir that at the time he bought the gun, he was smoking crack cocaine “every 15 minutes, seven days a week.”  Even with that, just getting Hunter indicted in the Biden political family’s seat of power in Delaware was no slam dunk.

Indeed, absent that political power Hunter Biden would have already been in jail, instead of having a couple of years of drug-fueled freedom and nearly skating on the most serious charges through a sweetheart plea deal concocted by his father’s political cronies.

Getting the sweetheart plea deal torpedoed was largely the work of a few brave FBI agents who spoke up and had to invoke federal whistleblower protection to try to at least somewhat insulate themselves against retribution by the Biden syndicate.

But the indictment and now the conviction of Hunter Biden left some conservatives troubled by the “lynch mob” mentality of some players in the conservative media, and especially among conservative social media “influencers.”

To those squeamish about what was in effect a lobbying campaign to get Hunter Biden indicted we have to point out that under the new rules of politics Democrats have created lobbying to get your political opponents indicted and thrown in jail – or financially ruined defending themselves – is perfectly normal and acceptable.

And blubbering about being above such tactics is neither smart, nor principled, it merely invites more of the same from the Left.

However, there are some critics of the Hunter Biden gun prosecution on the Right who have a point worth considering – Second Amendment absolutists who argue that the statute under which he was prosecuted is unconstitutional.

As our friend Emily Miller wrote in a post to her must-read substack, Hunter tried using the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen that says all Second Amendment restrictions must have a similar law in effect at the time of the nation’s founding.

The 1968 Gun Control Act prohibits possession of a firearm within 12 months of using drugs. Hunter would argue that the law is unconstitutional because there was nothing similar in the 1700s.

That this directly contradicted his father’s gun control agenda didn’t bother Hunter or his lawyers in the least – and we think it is a misreading of Bruen – but it is an argument that has a lot of support among Second Amendment absolutists.

“Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it,” Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, said on social media. “There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws.” 

Jacob Sullum, senior editor at reason magazine, observed that, “The haphazard, wildly uneven enforcement of this widely flouted statute, which criminalizes conduct that violates no one's rights, would be troubling even if it did not arbitrarily strip people of their Second Amendment rights.”

One of our favorite gun writers John Crump reported in an article forAmmoland Shooting Sports’ e-newsletter, the Biden legal defense team is expected to appeal the conviction. They said they would explore all options available to them. Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said they will “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.” These challenges might include invoking the Bruen decision because the prosecution will be hard-pressed to find a historical analogue to the current law surrounding drug use and firearms as well as the ATF Form 4473.

Tangentially, in the matter of another ATF Form 4473 prohibited group, there is a case out of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Judge Sharon Coleman) finding that a similar prohibition against gun ownership by illegal aliens was contra the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision.  In that case the judge found that despite the provisions of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(5)(A), illegal alien Heriberto Carbajal-Flores had a Second Amendment constitutional right to own a gun. The case is U.S. v. Carbajal-Flores.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika denied the Hunter Biden motion at trial but said he could use it on appeal, so the issue is far from dead.

In a short statement after the verdict, reported by Chris Enloe of Blaze Media, Special Counsel David Weiss rebuffed the narrative that tried to stir up sympathy for the first son.

"This case was about the illegal choices defendant made while in the throes of addiction, his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun, and the choice to then possess that gun. It was these choices and the combination of guns and drugs that made his conduct dangerous," Weiss explained. "No one in this country is above the law."

But it was his concluding remark that investigative reporter Catherine Herridge called the "most important 10 seconds" of Weiss' statement.

"As you know, we have additional trials and investigative work to be done, so I will not entertain questions at this time. Our work continues," the special counsel told reporters.

Contrary to what Democrats have been saying, the Hunter Biden verdict proves nothing about the Trump verdict in New York. But what it does demonstrate is that Democrats, when brought before honest juries and prosecutors, no matter how well they are connected, are not immune to the new rules they created, especially on gun control and lobbying for the prosecution of opposition party figures.

CHQ Editor George Rasley is a Glock ® certified pistol armorer and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2008. He served as lead advance representative for Governor Sarah Palin in 2008 and has served as a staff member, consultant, or advance representative for some of America's most recognized conservative Republican political figures, including President Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. A member of American MENSA, he served in policy and communications positions on the House and Senate staff, and during the George H.W. Bush administration he served on the White House staff of Vice President Dan Quayle.

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