Washington Post by Glenn Kessler 6/9/2022
“Lying on an ATF form 4473 is a federal violation and can lead to severe penalties and jail time. Don’t lie and buy.”Form 4473 — the Firearm Transaction Record — is a six-page document that must be filled out whenever someone buys a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer.
The form asks questions including whether the person buying the gun is a felon, whether the person is a fugitive from justice or convicted of domestic abuse, whether the person is addicted to drugs and whether the person is the actual buyer of the firearm.
This tweet by ATF’s Houston office led a swarm of Twitter users to ask why the bureau didn’t charge Hunter Biden, the president’s son, for allegedly lying on Form 4473 when he purchased a handgun in October 2018. The controversy prompted us to request statistics from the Justice Department to determine whether someone falsely filling out the form faced much of a risk of prosecution.
It took months to obtain the data. The answer, it turns out, is no.
The statistics are newly relevant as Congress discusses how to strengthen gun laws in the wake of high-profile mass shootings. This is a prime illustration of how, for a variety of reasons including prosecutorial choices, existing laws are not always rigorously or consistently enforced.
The FactsStaring with the National Firearms Act of 1938, Congress has sought to limit gun purchases by certain individuals such as fugitives and people convicted of a felony. After high-profile assassinations and the occupation of the California Capitol by armed Black Panthers, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which among other things expanded the list of prohibited people to include someone who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant or stimulant drug.”
The reason for adding drug users to the list is a bit obscure, according to experts we consulted. Johnson did not mention the issue in his speech calling for a new gun-control law or in his remarks when signing the bill. But the mid-1960s witnessed the rise of counterculture, with its abundant drug use, while marijuana at the time was often believed by law enforcement to be the drug of choice for people of color.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/lying-atf-gun-purchase-form-yields-few-prosecutions-new-data-shows/
