White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer whether drug users should be able to possess firearms after it was reported that Hunter Biden's lawyers may pursue a Second Amendment defense if the first son is charged for buying a handgun while using crack cocaine.
"I'm not going to get into a tit for tat on this," Jean-Pierre said during a Friday press briefing. "I'm just not going to."
Biden faces a probe from the Justice Department over a handgun he purchased in 2018, a time when he has admitted he was often using crack cocaine. Drug users are federally prohibited from owning guns.
Lawyers for Biden told the Justice Department they will point to the Second Amendment as defense for his purchase if he is charged, arguing that the prohibition on gun purchases for drug users is unconstitutional, a source told Politico last week.
Hunter wrote in his memoir that he "was smoking crack every 15 minutes" at the time, but on the gun purchase form he said he was not a drug user.
Jean-Pierre's refusal to comment comes as the Biden administration moves to expand gun restrictions and bans. President Joe Biden frequently calls for banning "assault weapons." The administration also defended a law that prohibits medical marijuana users from acquiring guns.