Gannett’s flagship newspaper USA TODAY claims in a latest story that if a Delaware gun store had “performed its job” in 2018, Hunter Biden would by no means have been capable of illegally buy the .38 Particular Colt Cobra revolver, which led to his three felony convictions.
“By legislation, handguns will be offered by outlets solely to state residents, who should present a government-issued proof of residency, and Biden was not a authorized resident of Delaware in 2018. As an alternative, he provided solely a passport, together with his title and birthdate,” USA TODAY reporter Nick Penzenstadler wrote within the story, which was titled: “Hunter Biden’s gun case was spurred by an ATF type. The store violated federal legislation.”
The identical allegations have been first introduced up in court docket by Hunter Biden’s protection staff, however Decide Maryellen Noreika appropriately identified that the gun store was not on trial.
Penzenstadler by no means mentions that federal legislation requires the firearm purchaser to current legitimate identification and to be truthful on the ATF Type 4473, which Hunter Biden definitely was not. He hid his drug dependancy when requested “Are you an illegal consumer of, or hooked on, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or another managed substance?” On the time, Hunter Biden was smoking crack cocaine almost each quarter-hour, in keeping with courtroom testimony introduced throughout his trial.
ATF compliance skilled John “JC” Clark, co-founder and managing director of FFL Consultants, mentioned the ATF Type 4473 is greater than clear and warns the firearm purchaser that they are going to be held chargeable for any falsehoods or misrepresentations.
“Mr. Biden failed to acknowledge that, regardless of the ATF Type 4473 being supplied to him by a non-governmental entity, it stays a authorities doc. This type contains specific warnings detailing potential prison violations for offering false data. It’s uncommon for a authorities type to not solely instruct the consumer to ‘READ THE FORM,’ however to additionally require certification that the shape has certainly been learn,” Clark informed the Second Modification Basis Wednesday. “By signing the shape, Mr. Biden acknowledged his understanding that making any false oral or written assertion or presenting false or misrepresented identification in reference to the transaction, constitutes a felony offense beneath federal legislation.”
None of this was introduced in Penzenstadler’s story. As an alternative, to bolster his nonsensical claims, he resurrected a as soon as notorious “gun management activist,” David Chipman, the runty former ATF bureaucrat and paid anti-gun activist whom Hunter’s dad tried unsuccessfully to substantiate as ATF Director. The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked on Chipman’s nomination alongside get together traces, and Joe Biden was compelled to withdraw his title from consideration.
“We don’t give drug sellers a go to get the possessor,” Chipman informed the newspaper reporter. “It’s prison investigation 101. How the federal government has bent over backward to elucidate away the extra severe felony is surprising.”
If Penzenstadler’s title sounds acquainted, it ought to. He was as soon as a part of Gannett’s company anti-gun propaganda staff, which paired paid activists from the Hint, the propaganda arm of former New York Metropolis mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun empire, with reporters and editors from the newspaper – a transfer that violated a couple of dozen of Gannett’s extremely touted moral rules. Penzenstadler is now a part of USA TODAY’s investigative staff, in keeping with his byline.
In 2021, Penzenstadler and a Hint activist interviewed Chipman for a glowing puff piece titled: “Biden nominated him to move gun oversight. He went down in flames – however he’s not performed combating.”
The story portrayed Chipman as heroic and claimed the “ugly and private affirmation course of hardened his resolve to give attention to gun security and push again in opposition to the trade’s outsize affect on the company — even when he has to take action from the surface.”
Within the 2021 story, Chipman lashed out at everybody for his failed nomination, together with the White Home and the Justice Division. He blamed everybody however himself for changing into a laughingstock and on the time the best meme generator since Joe Biden.
Apples to apples
Hunter Biden has but to be sentenced for mendacity about his drug use on an ATF Type 4473 and possessing a firearm whereas hooked on or utilizing unlawful medicine. He faces as much as 25 years in jail, however most court docket watchers and pundits say he received’t spend a minute behind bars. Whereas it may be problematic to check the sentence one defendant receives to a different, these in search of comparable instances to check to Hunter Biden’s prison gun fees now have two examples to contemplate.
Final month, Alexander Wesley Ledvina, 27, was sentenced to 4 years in jail and three years of supervised launch after he was discovered responsible throughout a 2023 bench trial of 1 depend of possession of a firearm by a drug consumer and one depend of creating a false assertion through the buy of a firearm.
In response to a Justice Division press launch, Ledvina claimed on an ATF Type 4473 that he was neither a consumer of marijuana nor hooked on marijuana or another managed substance. Nevertheless, throughout his trial, “Ledvina stipulated that he knew that he was utilizing managed substances, together with marijuana, THC, and cocaine.”
As beforehand reported, Miracle Star Vaughn pleaded responsible to creating false statements through the buy of firearms. Like Hunter Biden, she hid her drug dependancy on an ATF Type 4473.
“Through the firearms purchases, Vaughn supplied false data relating to her tackle and her drug use,” a Justice Division press launch said on the time.
The ATF alleged that Vaughn, then 27 and dwelling in North Liberty, Iowa, bought seven handguns over an 18-month interval, and that two of the weapons ended up within the arms of convicted felons. Vaughn, like Hunter Biden, had no prison historical past on the time of her firearm purchases.
Vaughn pleaded responsible to creating false statements on the 4473. On April 26, 2023, a federal choose in Davenport, Iowa sentenced her to three hundred and sixty six days in a federal jail. Vaughn was launched three months in the past and should now full three years of supervised launch.
Takeaways
Not too way back, USA TODAY was seen by 1000’s of individuals, though most of them stepped over the newspaper whereas leaving their resort rooms. Nonetheless, for a each day newspaper to unfairly goal a small, family-owned enterprise solely as a result of they have been unlucky sufficient to come across a Biden is unconscionable.
If Hunter Biden lied on a 4473 and obtained caught that’s his fault, not the gun store’s. Hunter Biden is a grownup who needs to be held chargeable for his personal choices, good or unhealthy. To indicate that the gun store ought to have recognized that he was mendacity about his drug use and his tackle is unfair.
The world will not be made up of Hunter Biden minders, whose sole responsibility is to maintain him out of hassle. There’s just one one who has that job – a 54-year-old self-admitted cocaine addict turned presidential advisor named Robert Hunter Biden.
This story is introduced by the Second Modification Basis’s Investigative Journalism Undertaking and wouldn’t be attainable with out you. Please click on right here to make a tax-deductible donation to assist extra pro-gun tales like this.
About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who’s also referred to as “The Gun Author,” is the chief editor of the Second Modification Basis’s Investigative Journalism Undertaking. Till not too long ago, he was additionally an editor for a each day newspaper in Florida. Earlier than changing into an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Earlier than changing into a journalist, he labored as a police officer. Earlier than changing into a cop, Lee served within the Military. He’s earned greater than a dozen nationwide journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
