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Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges Tuesday ignited a feverish debate, including among conservatives, over the constitutionality of the law he was found guilty of violating.
Thanks to a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, courts are taking a new look at the federal government’s main gun control law that bars felons, illegal immigrants, dishonorably discharged veterans, fugitives and unlawful drug users, among others, from possessing a firearm.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys raised the issue to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before the trial and were told they would have to wait for a final judgment from the trial court.
On Tuesday, the jury found Biden guilty of three charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a Colt revolver, including purchasing a gun as an unlawful drug user and lying about his drug use at the time of the purchase.
The issue has divided conservatives. On Tuesday, many were torn between decrying what they saw as overburdensome gun laws and a grandstanding President Biden.
“Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it,” Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, said on social media. “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 against current laws.”
Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, said the law is flawed, but Hunter Biden deserves the conviction.
“Joe Biden has done everything in his power to weaponize his administration against guns, gun owners, and dealers, and it’s incredibly ironic to now see his own son caught up in these efforts,” Mr. Pratt told The Washington Times in a statement. “Gun Owners of America believes the underlying law is unconstitutionally broad, but so long as it remains on the books, Hunter deserved no special treatment or mercy.”
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said of Hunter Biden’s case, “This one’s a tough one for me.”
He said the law barring nonviolent criminals from possessing weapons is too broad but Biden’s drug use makes the call tricky.
Mr. Gottlieb said lying on the firearm background check was clearly a crime.
“Lying on the form, itself, is a whole different crime than being in possession of the gun or being allowed to buy a gun,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Joe Biden stands by Hunter Biden after gun conviction; says he accepts trial’s outcome
He saw irony in the conviction of the president’s son.
“President Biden and his family have been gun control supporters, and now they’re caught in their own web of the laws they supported,” Mr. Gottlieb said.
After the jury verdict, Abbe Lowell, Biden’s attorney, signaled his intent to “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.”
Among the issues, he said Biden faced selective prosecution, special counsel David Weiss was improperly appointed to pursue the case, and the Gun Control Act can’t bar Biden’s conduct.
Mr. Lowell says the 2022 Supreme Court ruling, the Bruen case, rewrote the framework for gun laws and implicitly struck down much of the prohibition against drug users possessing a weapon.
In that case, the justices said gun control laws are generally valid only if they would have been countenanced by the people who wrote and ratified the Second Amendment.
Courts are pondering challenges to the law from felons, illegal immigrants, drug users and people facing domestic violence protection orders.
One case is pending before the Supreme Court, with a ruling slated this month.
Hunter Biden has argued that after Bruen, the only valid gun controls are for those who could be considered dangers to society.
His attorneys said Biden doesn’t fall into that category just because he may have abused drugs.
“Nobody testified that Mr. Biden ever showed the weapon to anyone, much less brandished the weapon in any threatening or offensive manner,” Mr. Lowell argued to the trial court.
At trial, Mr. Lowell said Biden was not an unlawful drug user at the time he bought the weapon and during the 11 days he owned it. They said he never really possessed the gun — never loading or firing it.
Indeed, his attorneys said the gun was never handled after purchase until Hallie Biden, his sister-in-law turned girlfriend, took the weapon and dumped it into a trash can at a local market.
Mr. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who was belatedly appointed special counsel to pursue the case against Biden, argued that his case falls squarely in the founding era’s “tradition of disarming persons whose possession of firearms presents a public safety threat.”
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