Hunter Biden may become an advocate for the right to bear arms if he's charged with purchasing a gun while being an active crack cocaine user.
The first son faces a probe by 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 use 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.
Hunter wrote in his memoir that he "was smoking crack every 15 minutes" at the time, but he marked on the gun purchase form that he was not an active drug user.
The first son's plans for his defense come as the White House 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.
Second Amendment challenges to the ban on drug users owning weapons could result in an expansion of gun rights, Politico reported:
The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits unlawful drug users from possessing firearms. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says this ban applies to people who have admitted to using illegal drugs in the 12 months before buying a gun. Violators can receive up to 15 years in prison.
But the provision, long considered an unassailable gun restriction, now faces challenges. Last June, the Supreme Court undid decades of lower-court jurisprudence about the Second Amendment. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court’s six-justice conservative majority ruled that contemporary gun restrictions must be consistent with those of the founding era.
This new constitutional test presents a massive opening for people working to loosen gun restrictions, since firearm laws in America’s founding era were, in some ways, extremely permissive. The president, meanwhile, called the ruling deeply troubling and said it "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution."