Hallie Biden was never on trial. She was a witness in the prosecution of Hunter Biden, and now that her ex-boyfriend and the brother of her deceased husband has been pardoned by her former father-in-law, everything she said and did is back on the table.
That includes tossing the gun Hunter bought illegally in a dumpster. But an op-ed tries to leverage that into something else.
This one comes from the Washington Post. A couple of law professors are lamenting that poor Hallie didn't have other options.
What would you do if a loved one were dangerously and illegally in possession of a gun? Would you do what Hallie Biden did?
President Joe Biden’s surprise pardon of his son on Sunday protects Hunter Biden from federal criminal liability for illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm, but it leaves unaddressed a related potentially criminal act committed by Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former romantic partner.
On Oct. 23, 2018, 11 days after Hunter Biden bought a .38 Colt Cobra revolver, Hallie Biden found the weapon and didn’t know what to do with it. She testified at trial: “I didn’t want him to hurt himself, and I didn’t want my kids to find it and hurt themselves.” She drove to a supermarket in Delaware and tossed the gun in a dumpster.
“I realize it was a stupid idea now,” she explained, “but I was just so panicked.”
We should empathize with her position. What was she supposed to do? On the one hand, tossing the gun into a public trash can could have led to its accidentally or intentionally injuring or killing someone. (In fact, the weapon was quickly collected by a retiree searching the dumpster for recyclables who later gave the gun to police. No one was harmed.) On the other hand, the law provides no safe methods for taking a firearm away from a person who is in illegal possession of one and poses a present danger to themselves, you or your family.
Well...that's a take.
Here's the thing, Hallie had options. For example, she could have reported Hunter for having the gun illegally. Yeah, she loved him, but as a parent, I'd be more worried about the safety of myself and my kids.
The professors point out that Hallie could have been prosecuted for theft after what she did, but they treat it like a bad thing. It's not.
Look, Hunter was a drugged-out whackjob who is the poster child for what happens when Daddy has too much money, too much power, and too few morals.
And I only use "was" because that's an established fact. I have no reason to believe he actually cleaned up his act, but I have no real proof of that. I'm just trying to keep from being sued, basically. I, personally, think he's still a piece of crap.
But what Hallie did was colossally stupid, and we all know it. She knows it. She admitted that it was stupid, as noted above.
The idea of anyone trying to leverage that into a justification for something like a red flag law or any other effort that allows someone to just demand that the government take someone else's gun is insane. As she said, she panicked. She freaked out, possibly due to hoplophobia, and didn't know what to do.
Let's not pretend there was some kind of morality at work here, or that she ultimately did the right thing, even if she did it the wrong way.
No, what she did was a crime and there's no way we should be rewarding it by pretending it was somehow good or noble, even if stupidly executed. She stole someone's gun because she was freaking out.
Legalizing a way for someone to do exactly that isn't the way to approach anything.
