WASHINGTON – Some members of Congress in both parties say the gun charges the Justice Department used to secure a conviction Hunter Biden should be enforced more regularly.
Legal experts said after Biden was indicted that prosecutors rarely use the gun-related statute. A number of senators and representatives told NBC News that should change.
“I don’t think they filed any gun charges. I think we could do a lot to make our communities safer if the DOJ would more actively prosecute gun violations,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a ranking 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, this will never be 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 never get the gun.
“What makes this situation so egregious is that Mr. Biden was given the gun, and he had the gun, and he would have had the gun for a while if… his then-girlfriend had not thrown it away,” he continued.
Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was charged last year with “knowingly making a false and fictitious written statement intended and likely to deceive that dealer as to a fact material to the legality of the sale of the firearm,” which he obtained in 2018. The alleged lie was that he was not an unlawful user or addicted to drugs. 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 do believe the law should be enforced more often because it will save lives.”
Some Republicans disagree.
“Hunter may deserve to be in jail for something, but buying a gun doesn’t,” said 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 jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm in violation of current laws.”
Biden himself invoked gun rights in his defense, with lawyers arguing the case was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
Other lawmakers said they had no strong views on it, including Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
“I haven’t really thought about it yet [it]. … I don’t know what the current prosecution rate is now,” he said, suggesting the rarity of the charge may have “to do with competing priorities.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Biden did worse things than what he was accused of in regards to obtaining a firearm.
“I don’t think the average person would have been charged with this crime,” he said. “They just did this as a throwaway.”
The gun possession charge was initially set to be dropped as part of a plea deal with Special Prosecutor David Weiss’ office last year. As part of the deal, which U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ultimately rejected, Biden filed a statement of facts in which he acknowledged that he was “at the time a user of and addicted to crack cocaine” from the gun sales.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a vocal supporter of stricter gun laws, said he had not studied “how prosecutors approach these cases” when asked about the gun-related charges in the Biden case.
He added more broadly that Republicans are applying a double standard when it comes to claims of politicized prosecutions: “It’s pretty wild that Republicans think it’s okay for Democrats to be convicted, and it’s illegal for Republicans to be convicted. ”
Sen. Richard BlumenthalD-Conn., a former prosecutor who favors stricter gun laws, said of the gun charges in the case: “No prosecution is necessarily a precedent, but if it sets a trend, then all is for the better.”
He added that the firearms statute is typically associated with other illegal activities and that he would like to see it more aggressively enforced.
“Typically, our gun safety laws are under-enforced due to a lack of attention and resources, so much stronger and more robust enforcement is absolutely one of the answers to gun violence prevention,” Blumenthal said.
A majority of Americans say it is too easy to legally obtain a gun, according to a September Pew Research Center survey. There was a sharp partisan divide; while 86% of Democrats said it is too easy to legally obtain a gun, only 34% of Republicans said the same.
Blumenthal referenced his history of persecution to call for enforcement of laws on the books.
“I have been advocating for years that these laws should be more strictly enforced. When I was a lawyer in the United States, I enforced them. They are often – and almost always – associated with other criminal behavior. They are usually part of drug operations or other types of illegal activities.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
