Bom dia from the mostly-gun-free capital of Portugal! Checking in on U.S. news, I noticed the following…
“Hunter Biden guilty of felony gun charges, faces 25 years in prison” (New York Post, so we know that it is true):
a federal jury found him guilty of three counts related to lying about his drug use in order to buy a gun … making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed firearms dealer, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of or addict to a controlled substance. … Hallie testified about finding the gun inside Hunter’s Ford Raptor pickup on Oct. 23, 2018 — 11 days after he bought it — and throwing the weapon away in a panic at a Wilmington grocery store.
So Hunter Biden had a gun for 11 days, but didn’t use it in any way as far as we know and now he can be put in the slammer for about 100 times as long as a typical San Francisco career criminal? (See below for what happens to a criminal in San Francisco who actually shoots and kills someone.) Were his statements knowingly false? If you ask a typical addict “are you addicted?” the person will respond “I can quit at any time.” That would be his/her/zir/their truth and not a lie.
I think the answer is “the judge won’t impose the maximum sentence”, but why should an individual human be given the discretion to imprison an important contemporary artist for what would essentially be the entire rest of his life?
Related:
- How’s Adolfo Martinez, imprisoned for burning a rainbow flag, doing? (16-year sentence for burning the sacred national symbol)
- “Immigrant acquitted of San Francisco killing is sentenced for gun charge” (state-sponsored PBS, so we know it is true): “Garcia Zarate faced a maximum sentence of three years behind bars … He had previously been convicted of illegally re-entering the United States and been deported five times before Steinle was fatally shot. The San Francisco sheriff’s department released him from jail several weeks before the shooting, ignoring a request from federal immigration officials to detain him for a sixth deportation.”
After 30 years of daily school mass shooting headlines, it makes sense that gun laws would have escalated to ridiculous. He might have gotten the death sentence if it was a water gun in Calif*. It’s a rare example of who the criminals really are & what the voters are really voting for. Note the media didn’t cover any mass shootings during this week’s cycle.
The question is invasive and probably should not be allowed under 2A and 5A grounds. In August, the 5th Circuit has recently ruled that the law violates 2A in a post-Bruen world (United States v. Daniels [no relation to Stormy?] https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/22/22-60596-CR0.pdf).
Both the Biden and to an extent the Trump prosecutions are somewhat related to a larger problem: increasingly intrusive questions on government forms, one prominent example this year is the new FinCen BOI reporting requirements (against which there is already one preliminary injunction) that require a RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS that be promptly updated.
1) A person needs to interact with government, e.g., to obtain a fishing license.
2) The government designs an unnecessarily invasive form, e.g.:
2.0) What is your mailing address?
2.1) Are you a resident of the state? If so, please provide proof.
2.2) Have you ever been convicted of an offense involving fish and/or game involving a fine of more than $500 or more than 24 hours imprisonment?
But then they continue:
2.3) What is your residence address? (As a Fishing License Holder, you are required to update this address by providing at least 4 pieces of official government mail within 5 days of moving. Failing to abide by this provision is a felony punishable by fines up to $50,000 and / or imprisonment of up to 7 years)
2.4 a) Do you regularly have more than $1000 in cash or gold at this address?
2.4 b)If so, please describe the location of the cash/gold, including the safe combination, if any.
2.5a) Do you frequently travel and leave your wife home alone?
2.5b) If so, please list wife’s approximate height and weight.
2.6) Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder such as Depression, Dysthymia, Grief Disorder, Anxiety, OCD, ADHD, Asperger’s, or Internet Use Disorder? If so, provide complete records from all mental health, therapy, counseling, or Employee Assistance Program contacts and an additional $5000 Psychological Records Evaluation Fee.
2.7 ) How often do you masturbate?
3) Fail to disclose or to update anything 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7 in order to protect your wife / property / privacy; now you are a felon who has “filed false documents.”
The “what is your residential address” question is not entirely simple. A person may have aging divorced parents in different states and work contract jobs in between major parental illnesses. Another might be a traveling nurse who lives in a small RV. When does the person’s need to care for Parent B rather than Parent A without timely notifying the federal government become a crime?
Lying on federal forms is no laughing matter, but in the times when government forms abandon terms mother and father for parent # 1 and parent # 2 (why such discrimination, limiting only to 2 choices?) and city governments supplying hard drags to those in need, is it really a crime to self-identify as a sober she of many them on a form of entity that celebrates multiple pronouns?
I am sure this is to not to prosecute more serious crimes: at best federal corruption charges for influence peddling with only asset being Big Guy in VP role, and to try make Trump political prosecution look better.
We are done following Orwell’s 1984 manual, we are well beyound his worst fantasies. Prosecuting for things that are not only treated as crimes, not only encouraged, but also paid for by the taxpayers.
On the same date Big Guy, who, in his own words, is proud of Hunter’s behavior, was pushing for more gun laws.
Orwell is being put to shame.
Note to self: If you’re maybe going to trial for maybe being an addict while buying a gun, don’t write a biography about being an addict.
This guy really should have taken the plea.