Hunter Biden is a victim of right wing law fare.
Lying to ATF on gun-purchase form yields few prosecutions, data shows
President Lyndon B. Johnson urged passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which among other things expanded the list of prohibited people to include someone who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant or stimulant drug.”
Lying on the form is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. For being a user of unlawful drugs in possession of a firearm, the punishment is up to five years.
But according to newly revealed Justice Department records, the odds of being charged for lying on this form are virtually nonexistent. In the 2019 fiscal year, when Hunter Biden purchased his gun, federal prosecutors received 478 referrals for lying on Form 4473 — and filed just 298 cases, according to data extracted from the U.S. attorneys’ case management system. That’s out of approximately 27 million background checks undertaken in a 12-month period.
But a review of such cases in Delaware, also provided to The Fact Checker, shows that in fiscal 2019, only three Form 4473 cases were referred for prosecution in the state — and the U.S. attorney opted not to bring them.
In a guidance document for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), ATF has emphasized drug use within the past year could trigger the prohibition on Form 4473. “An inference of current use or possession may be drawn from evidence of a recent use or possession of a controlled substance or a pattern of use or possession that reasonably covers the present time,” the document said. “The ATF has determined that the present time is represented by the time frame of within the past 12 months.”