I wrote part of this as yesterday and added it to my blog about the clip of Trump’s foamy mouth which went viral. Because it is in the news today I thought I’d blog about Hunter Biden again.

Because it is in the news today and was the subject of a long discussion on Morning Joe, and in fact it was the top story on Salon I decided to repost it with some additions.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte explains not only why the Hunter Biden trial is backfiring on the GOP but alludes indirectly why there’s a reason he won’t be convicted at the end of her column:

But a story of a man self-medicating his grief by acting out and abusing drugs? That’s a story most of us understand perfectly well, and plenty of us have direct personal experience with. Such understanding makes it very hard to argue that Hunter Biden’s troubles have some larger political meaning that should bother voters at all. Even if he gets convicted, which the evidence suggests is likely, it’s hard to see how it makes much impact beyond reminding people that the Bidens, in their all-too-common tragedy, are much more relatable than the Trumps. 

It is important that when President Biden was asked whether he’d pardon his son if he was convicted he said unequivocably that he wouldn’t. The “Morning Joe” panel pointed out how different this is from Trump who pardoned his pals, among them Steve Bannon (who despite this is going to prison for four months) and promised to pardon the J6 insurrectionists.

Lindsay Graham, of all people, offered a common sense reason why I think Hunter Biden won’t be convicted:

“I think any average American who’s done their taxes like Hunter Biden would have probably faced prosecution, however, I don’t think the average American would have been charged with the gun thing,” Graham told HuffPost. “I don’t see any good coming from that.” Read article.

It seems to me that this will be obvious to the jury.

It will have an impact on the jury that Melissa Biden is attending the trial with her husband.

Hallie Biden’s testimony will have an impact. She is Beau Biden’s widow who briefly dated Hunter after her husband died. Read: ‘I am ashamed’: Hallie Biden gives emotional testimony on finding Hunter Biden’s gun, using drugs. I expect this will humanize Hunter in the minds of the jurors and may inculcate a feeling of empathy or sympathy for him.

His eldest daughter Naomi is testifying today:

Update: Reports are that Hunter Biden is emotionally wiping away tears as his daughter testifies.

Obviously his lawyers want to humanize him and make them think twice about sending him to prison.

There’s also the technicality that the question on the form asked whether Hunter was a drug addict or currently using illegal drugs. This would seem to hinge of the meaning of “currently” and whether this means how Hunter as a recovering addict not “currently” using drugs thought he was answering honestly. This would allow jurors sympathetic to him to say there is reasonable doubt about his guilt.

And then there’s the actual “gun thing…”

I have some thoughts on the Hunter Biden trial having to do with the fact he bought a gun and lied on a form. They are based in part on my understanding of handguns and what it means to carry one from having been a reserve police officer for 20 years. I was licensed to carry a concealed weapon and I had this .38 cal. a revolver which is similar to the one Hunter Biden had. I sometimes carried it off-duty. For example, I carried it when we were going to be in Boston at night I usually carried it.

On a few ocassions I was glad I had it. For example once we were alone in a dark underground garage and my wife, not a fan of guns, said “you do have your gun with you?”

I was friends with the Boston police captain who was in charge of the downtown division. I carried it when he took me for a tour of the city in a police cruiser.

There was another time when I was gald I had it. My wife and I were on the subway at night in a car by ourselves and one young man wearing a hoodie and looked menacing. He was at one end of the car and then came and sat directly across from us and glared in our direction. I had the gun in an Uncle Mikes belly pack made for carrying a small handgun. I zipped the velco open and out of his view put my hand on the gun. I think he figured this out since he exited at the next stop.

I think there’s a good chance of a hung jury or jury nullification because America is a gun culture. It isn’t just men who understand that there are times when owning a handgun for personal protection makes sense, and it isn’t only women like Lauren Boebert and Margorie Taylor Greene.

Apparently these two gun toting members of Congress thing the black semi-automatics are a sexy accessory. I beg to differ. Consider the gold plated snub-nosed, J-Frame Smith and Wesson revolver carried by Phryne Fisher (in the series Mrs. Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) which was actually the smaller .32 cal. than the .38 cal. revolver Hunter Biden bought.

I once had a client who kept seeing me for therapy after she moved to an apartment in Boston where she parked in an alley and entered from a rear door. She expresssed fear of doing this at night and I suggested she consider getting her carry permit and buying the same type revolver Hunter Biden bought and getting training in how to use it. She did this.

The jury has already been shown the gun (photo below). When I was a reserve police officer I had a similar revolver made by the Ruger company to carry off duty if I wanted to do so.

These easy to conceal .38 cal. five or six shot revolvers are a good choice for personal protection for civilians and law enforcement off-duty officers because they both are highly reliable and powerful enough to stop an assailant. When I was an auxiliary officer in Mason, Michigan this was the off-duty and backup gun (sometimes calls BUGs) all the full-time officers were issued.

This is the type of duty weapon Lennie Briscoe , played by Jerry Orbach, carried on Law and Order:

I can see one or more jurors thinking that if they were in Hunter’s position and were fearing for their life they might seriously consider buying a handgun. They might put themselves in his place and think it was no big deal to lie on the purchase form. It might come down to them thinking that if was lying or bending the truth vs. being defenseless against someone wanting to shoot them they too would do what Hunter Biden did.

Addendum:

From the subscrption NY Times:

Excerpt:

For nearly four years, Republicans have delved into the darkest corners of Hunter Biden’s life, seeking to tie his troubles to his father, President Biden. But as the younger Biden stands trial in Delaware on gun charges, the case’s glaring political contradictions have rendered the G.O.P. largely mute, from former President Donald J. Trump on down.

It stands to reason: The baseless claim that the Biden Justice Department is running a political persecution of Mr. Trump is somewhat undermined by the department’s prosecution of the president’s son. It is also hard to make much of allegations that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use to purchase a handgun when your party is sponsoring legislation to ease gun-purchasing restrictions for veterans struggling with mental illness, not to mention the case before the Supreme Court that could allow domestic abusers to buy firearms.

So beyond the professional provocateurs in Washington and the right-wing media, Republicans have decided to say as little as possible.

One thing I learned from the experience of carrying a concealed weapon is that you always must think of potential scenarios where you might feel you need to use it. You must be aware that merely brandishing a weapon (showing it in any way) depending on the circumstances is a crime in many jurisdictions (Read more).

I was fortunate in also carrying a badge and ID (above) since there are times when a law enforcement officer who is off-duy can defuse or deal with a situation merely by identifying themselves as a poice officer. I once showed my ID’s to some street hustlers in Boston who were harassing us. They turned on their heels and quickly departed.

A full-time officer friend once stop a robbery at a supermarket when he was on the checkout line and a man was threatening the cashier with a knife. He only had to show his badge and the man surrendered. He wasn’t even carrying his off-duty weapon, a small .38 like Hunter Biden bought, at the time.

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