WASHINGTON — Some members of Congress from both parties say the gun charge that the Justice Department used to secure a conviction against Hunter Biden should be pursued more regularly.
Legal experts said after Biden was indicted that prosecutors rarely use gun-related law. Several senators and representatives told NBC News that should change.
“I don’t think they’re pursuing gun charges. I think we could do a lot to make our communities safer if the DOJ more actively prosecuted gun violations,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., also said prosecutors should use the gun charge more often.
“Yes. Of course,” he said. “I hear a lot of people will say, ‘Well, that never gets prosecuted.’ Trying to get a gun and being turned away because of your reckless behavior is technically a crime. But it doesn’t get prosecuted because they They never get the gun.
“What makes this situation so egregious is that Mr. Biden got the gun, and he had the gun, and he would have had the gun for a while if… his girlfriend at the time hadn’t thrown it away,” he continued .
Biden, son of President Joe Biden, was charged last year for having “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, with the intent and probability of misleading that dealer with respect to a fact relevant to the legality of the sale of the firearm” that he obtained in 2018. The alleged lie was that he was not an illegal user or drug addict. A jury found him guilty on Tuesday.
“A jury found it convincing that he clearly lied on the form while he was addicted to drugs. And he shouldn’t have been able to buy a gun,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. “I regret the personal cost to Hunter Biden and his family, but I think this law should be enforced more often because it will save lives.”
Some Republicans disagree.
“Hunter may deserve to be arrested for something, but buying a gun isn’t it,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said on X. “There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in prison for buying or possessing a firearm, against current laws.”
Biden himself invoked gun rights in his defense, with defense lawyers arguing that the case was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
Other lawmakers said they did not have a strong opinion on the issue, including Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
“I didn’t really think about [it]. … I don’t know what the current prosecution rate is,” he said, positing that perhaps the rarity of prosecution “has to do with competing priorities.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Biden has done worse things than he has been accused of in regards to obtaining a firearm.
“I don’t think an ordinary person would have been charged with this crime,” he said. “They made it a disposable thing.”
The gun charge would initially be dropped as part of a plea deal with Special Counsel David Weiss’ office last year. As part of the agreement, which U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ultimately rejected, Biden submitted a statement of facts acknowledging that he “was a crack user and addict at the time” of the gun sale.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., an outspoken supporter of stricter gun laws, said he has not studied “how prosecutors approach these cases” when asked about the gun-related charges in the Biden case.
He added, more broadly, that Republicans have a double standard when it comes to allegations about politicized prosecutions: “It’s very strange that Republicans think it’s OK for Democrats to be convicted and that it’s illegitimate for Republicans to be condemned.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a former prosecutor who advocates for stricter gun laws, said of the gun charge in the case: “No single charge is necessarily a precedent, but if it sets a trend, everything for the good”.
He added that the firearms statute is typically associated with other illegal activities and that he would like to see it enforced more aggressively.
“Typically, our gun safety laws are inadequately enforced due to a lack of attention and resources, so much stronger and more vigorous enforcement is absolutely one of the answers to preventing gun violence,” Blumenthal said.
Most Americans say it is very easy to obtain a gun legally, according to a September study from the Pew Research Center. There was a strong partisan divide; while 86% of Democrats said it is very easy to obtain a gun legally, only 34% of Republicans said the same.
Blumenthal referenced his prosecutorial record to call for enforcement of the laws on the books.
“I have been advocating for these laws to be enforced more rigorously for years. When I was a United States attorney, I applied them. They are often — in fact, almost always — associated with other criminal conduct. They are typically part of anti-drug operations or other types of illicit activities.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
