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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: g0177325 ⎊✺🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 86289 
Subject: Re: Selective prosecution
Date: 09/16/23 3:18 PM
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The point is why should he ..not..be charged with the lying on a Federal form when others who have done the same thing have had consequences for having done the same thing.

I've heard that it is "rare" to be charged with this offense. But checking on that, it seems to be over 60%. But I'm not clear on the difference between "referrals", "cases", and "charges". Presumably they are three successive steps in the indictment process, but then we'd still need to know how many cases result in actual charges to determine how "rare" it really is.

From ncja.org - 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.
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This community has written 86,214 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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