The accusation of Biden Hunter about federal firearms charges derives from a 7-page form that prospective gun buyers must fill out when purchasing a gun from a licensed gun company. The form includes standard questions about things that would disqualify someone from legally owning guns, such as prior criminal convictions, mental health issues or illegal drug use.
The drug issue has arrived Biden in court – prosecutors say he lied on paperwork for a purchase of weapons in 2018 when he said he wasn’t using drugs. Biden’s lawyers say he did not consider himself a drug addict when he purchased the gun.
While people are sometimes sued for allegedly lying on the form, experts say this usually happens as part of a larger case involving more serious conduct, and cases like the one filed against Biden are rare.
Here are some things you should know about the form and related gun charges:
THE PAPERWORK
O Record of firearms transactions, also known as ATF Form 4473, is essentially an application to purchase a gun from a licensed dealer. It is used for a quick background check to ensure the purchaser is not legally prohibited from owning a gun. There are nine items on the form that can disqualify a buyer, and most of them are easy to check, said Jacob Charles, associate professor at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law.
If a person has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, or has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, these records will appear on the background check. But one of the big difficulties with the part of the form about illegal drug users is that it’s difficult to verify, Charles said.
“It is quite rare for this line on the background check form to be processed alone,” Charles said. “It can be difficult to prove these types of cases because, unless someone confesses or is under the influence of alcohol at the time, there is not always much evidence.”
This is especially true in states like Oregon or Washington, where some drugs like marijuana have been legalized locally, although they remain illegal under federal law.
“In every state that has legal marijuana, there are hundreds of thousands of people who own firearms,” Charles said. If they also use marijuana — even with a medical marijuana card — they are illegal gun owners under federal law, he said.
THE PROCESSIONS
Andrew Willinger, executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said illegal gun possession charges typically appear in court as part of larger criminal cases.
Processes like this against Biden — where the charges are not linked to another crime such as drug possession, robbery or assault — are uncommon, Willinger said.
“It’s very rare that this is sort of the lead charge in a case. They are usually filed as additional charges when there is more serious conduct at issue – against someone who has a long criminal history, someone who is involved in some violent conduct with a firearm,” Willinger said. “Having a gun as a felon is the most common charge, and it is the easiest to prosecute because all you need to provide is that the individual was involved in a crime and that he had a gun.”
Prosecuting someone for possessing a gun while using drugs requires a detailed investigation, Willinger said, and that often depends on evidence of multiple instances of drug use in the weeks or days leading up to the gun purchase.
THE NUMBERS
It’s difficult to determine how often people are actually prosecuted for illegal gun possession in each of the nine disqualification categories listed on Form 4473. But Willinger says the numbers are minuscule compared to the millions of gun purchase applications filed each the years.
It’s easier to track how many people have been denied purchases. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 25 million gun transfer or license applications were filed in 2020. Only about 1.6% of them — about 398,000 — were denied, and about Half of these denials were due to the applicant having a felony conviction, charge or arrest. Drug use or dependence was responsible for around 8.6% of denials, according to the agency.
In other words, only about 0.13% of total applications made for gun transfers or licenses in 2020 were denied due to drug use or possession.
The most recent statistics are scarce, but a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that during the 2017 fiscal year, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives routed about 12,700 gun purchases from fire denied to their field divisions for further investigation. As of June 2018, only 12 of these cases had been prosecuted at the federal level.
Hunter Biden is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun over an 11-day period in October 2018.
