A Tale of Two 4473’s

From as far back as I can recall of the throes of gun control. It is the incessant, endless claims of not enough gun laws, we need more, and they should all be banned. Despite all the banshee screaming from the mountain tops, we are witness to bail reform, lenient sentencing if at all, day of crime release-rotating door policies, and the topics at hand, no prosecution henceforth for the tens of thousands of gun laws on the books.

Be a scholar and give it an hour of your time. You’ll find some of the multitudes of overlapping and exceedingly redundant laws; you might notice that many of them call out criminal acts that are also illegal no matter what method is invoked. For instance, it is, under broad definition, illegal to commit manslaughter and or murder. It is heinous without regard to how it is accomplished.

In current news, fresh from last evening, Hunter Biden, after five years in the making, has been finally charged with felony gun indictments. Namely centered and focused on false statements declared on the ATF 4473 yellow form which those of us in the hunting and firearm industry are intimately familiar with. It is required along with a NICS check for anyone in the United States who purchases a firearm from an FFL dealer, Private sales also require this in some states for private sale. My home state of New York requires this with the change of the State Police now doing the background checks.

Hunter, if convicted of felony counts may face a maximum fine of $750,000 and 25 years in jail. It is reported that the charges relate to lying to an FFL Firearms dealer, declaring a false Statement on the ATF4473 form, and possessing an illegal firearm for eleven days. No mention was made of illegally disposing of the 38 caliber revolver in a dumpster across the street from a high school. Technically, Hallie Biden did the deed of disposing of it, as reported. His very public drug use is in very clear violation of the declaration provision in the document and is a prickly charge to squirm out of. 11 days? By the casual read of current gun laws, there is no grace period for possession of an illegally possessed firearm. His lawyer is reported to claim, that no one was harmed so it doesn’t matter as the 11 days. Not as I read the laws…

These reported offenses are all part of black letter law that is in practice, treated as murky, discretionary. We should expect better from our DA’s and we certainly deserve better. It’s total bullshit in view of having the 4473 form in the first place. It either has the backbone to ensure noneligible applicants are thwarted in purchasing a firearm or a ruse of no intentional detriment.

The talking heads are predicting no significant jail time or fine, or should it go to the full extent, a daddy POTUS pardon would follow. As of the moment, it is conjecture, not based on fact. Vega odds are yet to weigh in.

I do know directly of another tale, not so long ago, where a Cornell student son, murdered his CEO father at point-blank range with a 12-gauge shotgun. I worked with the deceased up until the company was purchased by him and also knew the family. He was VP of sales at the time. I was not invited to the transition as I was not of a favorable opinion, seeking to have him fired. It is a long sordid story that you couldn’t begin to make up. His son committed the act a little over two years after I had moved on to start my own company.

The very public murder trial ended with a hung jury and then dismissed. The feds came back with charges stemming from false statements made on an ATF 4473 form. The result of that was the full prosecution of a common citizen and a sentence of 20 years plus 3 years of post-supervision. I have left out details and opinions of this abbreviated tale as the point of it to illustrate the ballistic version of two levels of justice currently in vogue.

The takeaway from this in my view: Despite all the claims of timing to the election, pollical dirty tricks, It has been a slow roll of nearly five years to even get this far on Hunter Biden. I think we can safely assume that if it had been one of Trump’s sons, it would have been prosecuted and the convicted corpse left to rot within a year’s time. At least figuratively, in reality, millions in fines and release from jail as a very old man. More importantly, should this be you or I, not of the beautiful people crowd, or politically connected to the party of the ass, we might also be left to rot in jail and destitute of any financial gains. Pay attention folks, the tale of two 4473’s is telling of so much more…

-MJ

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