Hunter Biden has been convicted of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
I’d have hung that jury and tried to get them to nullify, The form asking if you’re an illegal drug user is so stupid. You can be as whacked out as but if there’s a Rx it’s all good.
At least one circuit already ruled it was unconstitutional when applied to marijuana. Why not crack?
Yes, every gun owner I’ve known, left wing or (extremely) right wing has shared a universal understanding that the form is basically pointless overall and that question specifically is a relic of “war on drugs” bullshit, but also still used by feds if they have nothing else to press on you. If you have a (legal) gun and (illegal) drugs anywhere near you that can conceivably be pinned on you… yeah, that’s a wrap. The DA can pressure you all day to get charges they actually want from you pleading down or snitching.
It’s also one of those “bad faith” blackholes of sorts in a discussion about it because yeah, I don’t think habitual mind-altering drug users should also be in possession of a gun. But if you smoke weed once a week or smoke crack (hey, not my thing, but you know) is that habitual? What about the other like 6 days a week? It quickly becomes very complicated and Americans typically lean VERY reactionary eg “I don’t want no CRACK smokers owning a gun!” If you press them on the fact that they smoke or have smoked weed in the past or maybe popped some random pills, well, somehow that’s different.
I guess the easiest thing to do is drop the question altogether perhaps in favor of having a qualified doctor who knows you (ah… but now we enter into “but that requires everyone have access to a doctor” territory…) for years and will attest that you are not currently addicted to or frequently abusing drugs that could potentially lead to incidents where you might use the gun on yourself or others. Sort of like a “mental physical.” But not just a for-profit signoff that weed cards have become where doctors will literally just sign any medical card request for any plausible reason without any actual evidence beyond you saying something. Obviously I don’t really care about the doctors signing off but I do care that it’s a ripoff for what should just be fully legalized and available everywhere, no card required. So none of that. It needs to be like at least 12 months of like once a month one hour talks with a qualified professional who can reasonably deduce if you’re stable enough. But again, who will regulate it, Rs will never allow it, Ds will cry if you remove questions from the ATF form, Rs will say racist ass shit (just imagine), and somehow someway someone will be profiting because America is a joke
This is the question btw. It’s incredibly ambiguous what constitutes a drug user in this context. It’s setup basically that you can hit 1 (or both) of 2 conditions: unlawful user [of drugs] or addicted to [drugs]. Well, addiction is problematic alone since what if you never got diagnosed with an addiction? Most people wouldn’t. But for the user part, there’s no timeline or amount given. Smoking weed once at 16 would make you an unlawful user of drugs for life from a certain viewpoint. In fact, IIRC, when I bought my first handgun I kinda half-jokingly asked the shop owner (a friendly but obviously extremely right wing “you smoke weed and I’ll shoot your ass, boy” type of guy) what constitutes a drug user… he just replied with “do you smoke weed? Check yes.” I didn’t and actually never had… perhaps still haven’t, pleading the 5th on that part, so I checked no and got my gun (a revolver).
So it’s a shit question. Many of the questions are shit. I cannot take this seriously when Hunter violated a law that almost everyone who owns a gun PLAUSIBLY also violated. I don’t care particularly if he goes to prison, but at the same time anything Hunter has done I can basically guarantee Trump’s son in law Jared or his two actual sons have done far worse. Hunter got paid off from Ukraine and maybe China as a nepobaby position. Jared got paid off by Saudis. I’m not sure why I should care about Hunter’s gun either way. Charge him with some crime related to bribery and charge Jared too.
"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside."
I’d have hung that jury and tried to get them to nullify, The form asking if you’re an illegal drug user is so stupid. You can be as whacked out as
but if there’s a Rx it’s all good.
At least one circuit already ruled it was unconstitutional when applied to marijuana. Why not crack?
Yes, every gun owner I’ve known, left wing or (extremely) right wing has shared a universal understanding that the form is basically pointless overall and that question specifically is a relic of “war on drugs” bullshit, but also still used by feds if they have nothing else to press on you. If you have a (legal) gun and (illegal) drugs anywhere near you that can conceivably be pinned on you… yeah, that’s a wrap. The DA can pressure you all day to get charges they actually want from you pleading down or snitching.
It’s also one of those “bad faith” blackholes of sorts in a discussion about it because yeah, I don’t think habitual mind-altering drug users should also be in possession of a gun. But if you smoke weed once a week or smoke crack (hey, not my thing, but you know) is that habitual? What about the other like 6 days a week? It quickly becomes very complicated and Americans typically lean VERY reactionary eg “I don’t want no CRACK smokers owning a gun!” If you press them on the fact that they smoke or have smoked weed in the past or maybe popped some random pills, well, somehow that’s different.
I guess the easiest thing to do is drop the question altogether perhaps in favor of having a qualified doctor who knows you (ah… but now we enter into “but that requires everyone have access to a doctor” territory…) for years and will attest that you are not currently addicted to or frequently abusing drugs that could potentially lead to incidents where you might use the gun on yourself or others. Sort of like a “mental physical.” But not just a for-profit signoff that weed cards have become where doctors will literally just sign any medical card request for any plausible reason without any actual evidence beyond you saying something. Obviously I don’t really care about the doctors signing off but I do care that it’s a ripoff for what should just be fully legalized and available everywhere, no card required. So none of that. It needs to be like at least 12 months of like once a month one hour talks with a qualified professional who can reasonably deduce if you’re stable enough. But again, who will regulate it, Rs will never allow it, Ds will cry if you remove questions from the ATF form, Rs will say racist ass shit (just imagine), and somehow someway someone will be profiting because America is a joke
This is the question btw. It’s incredibly ambiguous what constitutes a drug user in this context. It’s setup basically that you can hit 1 (or both) of 2 conditions: unlawful user [of drugs] or addicted to [drugs]. Well, addiction is problematic alone since what if you never got diagnosed with an addiction? Most people wouldn’t. But for the user part, there’s no timeline or amount given. Smoking weed once at 16 would make you an unlawful user of drugs for life from a certain viewpoint. In fact, IIRC, when I bought my first handgun I kinda half-jokingly asked the shop owner (a friendly but obviously extremely right wing “you smoke weed and I’ll shoot your ass, boy” type of guy) what constitutes a drug user… he just replied with “do you smoke weed? Check yes.” I didn’t and actually never had… perhaps still haven’t, pleading the 5th on that part, so I checked no and got my gun (a revolver).
So it’s a shit question. Many of the questions are shit. I cannot take this seriously when Hunter violated a law that almost everyone who owns a gun PLAUSIBLY also violated. I don’t care particularly if he goes to prison, but at the same time anything Hunter has done I can basically guarantee Trump’s son in law Jared or his two actual sons have done far worse. Hunter got paid off from Ukraine and maybe China as a nepobaby position. Jared got paid off by Saudis. I’m not sure why I should care about Hunter’s gun either way. Charge him with some crime related to bribery and charge Jared too.
"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside."