Trego's Mountain Ear

Hunter Biden has me wondering how many people are prosecuted for lying on Form 4473.  The threat of 5 years in the big house and a $5,000 fine is more than enough to deter me, but Hunter does have a law degree, so he may have had a better idea about the actual risk.

Justice Department Charges More than 14,200 Defendants with Firearms-Related Crimes in FY20 Well, the headline misses that it was 2020 – but that’s close enough to give some idea of how many people are charged. 

“Under federal law, it is illegal to possess a firearm if you fall into one of nine prohibited categories including being a felon, illegal alien, or unlawful user of a controlled substance.  Further, it is unlawful to possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense or violent crime.  It is also illegal to purchase – or even to attempt to illegally purchase – firearms if the buyer is a prohibited person or illegally purchasing a firearm on behalf of others.  Lying on ATF Form 4473, which is used to lawfully purchase a firearm, is also a federal offense.  The department is committed to prosecuting these firearms offenses as well as using all modern technologies available to law enforcement such as the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, known as NIBIN, to promote gun crime intelligence.”

The next task is to take that number down to the prosecutions on form 4473 – so we need another data source:  Few Prosecutions For Lying On ATF Gun-Purchase Form  

“Lying on the form is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. For being a user of unlawful drugs in possession of a firearm, the punishment is up to five years. The odds of being charged for lying on the form are virtually nonexistent. In the 2019 fiscal year, when Hunter Biden purchased his gun, federal prosecutors received 478 referrals for lying on Form 4473 — and filed just 298 cases. The numbers were roughly similar for fiscal 2020. At issue is when Biden answered “no” on the question that asks about unlawful drug use and addiction when purchasing a gun. Biden had been discharged five years earlier from the Navy Reserve for drug use and based on his 2021 memoir, he was actively using crack cocaine in the year he bought the gun. The data do not show how many people might have been prosecuted for falsely answering the question about active drug use. A 1990 Justice Department study noted how difficult it was to bring cases against people who falsely answer questions on the form, especially because there is no paper trail for drug abusers like there is for felons.”  

Okay – Justice gets 478 referrals for lying on Form 4473, and filed 298 cases.  That translates to 62% – five out of eight referrals for lying get prosecution.  The computerized 4473 I filled out in Cabelas didn’t want my driver’s license – it had a post office box on it – but it did accept my passport (which didn’t even have that much information).  I know something or someone is checking that form – and five years in the big house scares me, and I have no need to lie on the form. 

Law Enforcement: Few Individuals Denied Firearms Purchases Are Prosecuted and ATF Should Assess Use of Warning Notices in Lieu of Prosecutions | U.S. GAO  provides this table from 2017:

Table: Federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Firearms Denial Cases Investigated and Prosecuted, Fiscal Year 2017

Federal NICS Transactions	Denials	ATF Field Division Investigations	United States Attorney’s Offices Prosecutions
8,606,286	112,090	12,710	12

It shows that there were about 75 people who went through the process with no problem for every denial.  Admittedly, 12 prosecutions seems a bit low when I think of how much time and money is committed to the process.

Looking at the data suggests that there’s a five out of eight chance of prosecution if you get reported for lying on the 4473.  I don’t know how many of those are straw purchases and how many are drug users – but it looks to me that lying on the form 4473 is not a good idea.