Hunter Biden was recently convicted of three felony gun charges.  As conservatives, it’s hard not to enjoy this for a moment.  The entitlement that he’s felt all his life, his reckless behavior in all areas of his life, his spoiled rich frat-boy attitude — it’s very easy to feel the schadenfreude.  Honestly, it’s impossible not to feel it.

And the fact that he broke the law is so obvious that I’m surprised that it took the jury ten minutes, much less three hours, to convict.  But his conviction obscures the deeper issues in this case.

First, let’s talk about Form 4473, the ATF form Hunter signed, that clearly spells out the illegality and penalties for knowingly submitting false information.  Joe Biden is on record and on video claiming he was instrumental in creating that form, for which he has bragged about wanting more severe penalties for false answers.  The MSM, including Fox, have ignored that aspect of this story, but the aspect is a key element of the important story.

Democrats claim they want to reduce crime through gun control laws.  We all know that this is a smoke grenade covering what they really want, which is gun prohibition.  The response from the media and from the Biden administration should demonstrate to well-meaning but ignorant Democrat voters that gun control has nothing to do with saving lives or reducing crime.  If the Republicans don’t put Joe’s statements about Form 4473 in an ad this election season, they’re committing election malpractice.

There is another important and interesting element to this story.  Hunter’s legal team has already signaled that it intends to invoke the 2nd Amendment on appeal.  That’s right: they’re going to argue the NRA position that Form 4473 violates the Constitution.  I happen to agree with this argument.  The one right recognized in the Bill of Rights that is not contingent on anything at all is the 2nd Amendment.  Therefore, I believe Form 4473 is unconstitutional.  You don’t lose your right to free speech if you’re a drug addict.  You don’t lose your right to freedom from searches and seizures.  Why should you lose the right to defend yourself?

Does it make practical sense to deny drug addicts access to firearms?  Of course.  But in my belief system, the pragmatic must often take a back seat to the principle.  I must admit, though, that I am looking forward to watching the leftist media argue that the verdict violates the 2nd Amendment.  I might even tune in to The View, and risk the inevitable brain cell loss that comes from listening to their “reasoning,” to watch their collective minds melt.

There’s a third important issue.  Just hours after Hunter’s conviction for violating federal gun laws, Joe (and by “Joe” I mean whoever is really president) chose not to cancel his speech to the gun control organization Everytown for Gun Safety.  The bizarrely ironic political decision to give this speech on this day must be one of the weirdest moments in politics I’ve ever witnessed.  The idiots in the room did not see the irony, chanting, “Four more years!” and applauding loudly at every partially unintelligible word passing from the teleprompter through the corn maze of Joe’s brain and out through the microphone.

Three things in Joe’s speech stood out to me.

First, he talked about requiring federally mandated “safe storage.”  This, even though the gun Hunter illegally purchased, illegally possessed, and most likely illegally let his girlfriend possess was disposed of by the girlfriend in a trash can, by some reports in proximity to a school.  That revolver could have fallen into the hands of a child, or a violent criminal, or anyone.  Safe gun storage, indeed.  I can only assume that he thought it was as safely stored as the classified documents next to his Corvette, in his garage.

The second issue was that Joe implied that some manufacturers don’t supply trigger locks for their firearms.  That’s been federal law since 2003.  This is something leftist politicians often do when speaking to their ignorant supporters.  As any “man on the street” interview video conducted by a conservative will demonstrate, leftists typically don’t know the facts about what they believe.  Politicians take advantage of this by pretending we need to pass laws that were already passed and implemented years ago.

Joe didn’t say it in this speech, but he also often pretends you can buy guns without a background check from a dealer at a gun show or order guns over the internet without a background check.  As someone who has purchased many guns at gun shows, and many over the internet, I promise you that you must get a background check.  I dare anyone to try otherwise, if you’re willing to risk a platoon of armed men in ninja suits loudly visiting your house in the wee hours.

Finally, the third and most important issue.  Once again, Joe doubled down on his argument that having guns to protect yourself from a tyrannical government is silly because “you’d need an F-15.”  Many have pointed out the obvious threat in this argument, and they are correct.  It’s clearly a threat.  But there’s something more subtle at play here.  Without realizing the implications, he’s actually arguing that fully armed F-15s owned by private citizens are protected by the 2nd Amendment.

Think about it.  If you agree that the 2nd Amendment is to protect you from a tyrannical government — and I’d argue that we’re watching that tyranny progress in real time — then logically, F-15s and tanks, and whatever else citizens need to defend themselves against that threat, are protected arms.  I don’t want to live in a world like that, but then, I haven’t threatened the American people several times with the use of fighter-bomber aircraft.  I’m not making that argument; I’m just pointing out that Joe Biden has been making it unintentionally.

As conservatives, let’s enjoy our little moment here.  It’s satisfying to see a despicable person like Hunter Biden feel some consequences for the first time in his entitled life.  (Although he's certain to be pardoned by his father after the election.)

But let’s keep our eyes on the issues revealed in this case that really matter.

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