It pays to be the president’s son.
That’s the view of some Delaware Valley area gun dealers regarding the deal the Department of Justice just inked with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter on a host of federal charges, including failure to pay federal taxes and lying on a gun purchase form.
Those kinds of charges can sometimes send people to prison for a long while. Hunter, meanwhile, will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and will likely only face a probation sentence for those infractions.
This is not typical, says former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, who wrote after the deal was announced, “He got the gun. Moreover, he was then seen playing with it while cavorting with an ‘escort.’ (See the New York Post’s pictorial, if you’ve got the stomach for it). Shortly afterward, he and his then-paramour — Hallie Biden, the widow of his older brother — managed to lose the gun near a school. (It was later found by someone else.)
“Those are the kinds of gun cases that get charged by the Justice Department even if the suspect hasn’t, in addition, committed tax felonies [emphasis in original] by dodging taxes on the millions of dollars he was paid, apparently for being named Biden,” McCarthy wrote.
On the gun charge, Hunter Biden will reportedly not be required to plead guilty but will instead be permitted to undergo a diversionary program, after which the charges will be dropped. He will subsequently be barred from purchasing firearms.
Dave Deibert, owner of Pioneer Fine Arms in Huntingdon Valley, described Hunter Biden’s deal as “a travesty of American justice.”
“This is a very bad precedent to set, showing that who you are determines how the justice system deals with you,” he told DVJournal. “This is yet another example of us devolving into a pineapple republic where justice is enforced in an arbitrary and capricious way.”
“Laws and consequences are in place to protect society,” he said, arguing that “the optics that are presented to the public seem to make a mockery of the system.”
On the other hand, Jim Benoit at Cajun Arms in West Chester doesn’t buy the double-standard argument. “The average citizen wouldn’t be treated much differently” than Hunter Biden, he said.
“I sell guns. I’m a firearms instructor,” he continued. “Unfortunately, every now and again, I get someone who’s denied the purchase of a gun. Typically when the local district attorney up here in Chester County charges them, they get arrested initially, but typically she cuts a deal with almost anyone. If they agree to take a misdemeanor, then they can’t own firearms or attempt to own firearms ever again. It’s pretty unusual for them to go to court.”
Benoit said in many cases, people get flagged when filling out the federal Form 4473, “it’s usually because they have something in their criminal background they didn’t realize.”
He argued that prosecutors are failing to keep society safe by refusing to send true gun criminals to prison when they’re caught.
“The thing I find ironic is, people often scream for more gun laws, more restrictions,” he said. “I just often feel, ‘Why don’t we prosecute the laws that are on the books already? That would be a deterrent for stupid people doing bad things with guns.’”
That includes the Delaware Valley congressional delegation — Reps. Madeleine Dean (D), Brian Fitzpatrick (R), Chrissy Houlahan (D), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D). All support more restrictions on lawful gun ownership but have been silent regarding the treatment of President BidBiden’sn.
