Should Drug Users Be Able to Own Guns? Jean-Pierre: 'I'm Not Going to Get Into Tit for Tat' (June 2, 2023)

A reporter squeezed in one last question on guns at the June 2, 2023, White House briefing: “Should someone who’s a drug user be able to possess a firearm?” Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t touch it. “I’m not going to get into tit for tat on this,” she said [1].

The question was hardly abstract. Federal prosecutors were investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden, over a revolver he bought in 2018 while struggling with drug addiction. The video above shows the exchange. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

”One More Real Quick”

A reporter tacked on one more question. “On guns. One more real quick. On guns. Should someone who’s a drug user be able to possess a firearm?” [1]

“I’m not going to get into tit for tat on this,” Jean-Pierre said [1].

The reporter tried to follow up. “I’m — I’m just not going to,” she said, and called on the next reporter [1].

Wearing Orange

The dodge came on a day the White House had set aside for guns. Jean-Pierre opened the briefing by noting it was National Gun Violence Awareness Day. “The White House will be lit in orange lights this evening. And many of us are wearing orange, as you can see from what I’m wearing today — all orange,” she said [1].

She said the president was “proud to have signed the most significant gun safety legislation in decades and dozens of executive actions,” and that he “continues to call on Congress to act on commonsense reforms that will curb our gun violence epidemic, like establishing universal background checks, requiring safe storage of firearms, and finally banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazine” [1].

Later in the same briefing, she said of the White House agenda, “You hear us talk about gun safety, and I know that’s a tough issue, but we can’t continue to see our kids and — and communities being killed” [1]. When the question turned to drug users and guns, she had nothing to say.

The Law and Hunter Biden’s Revolver

Federal law answers the question directly. Under 18 U.S.C. 922(g), “It shall be unlawful for any person” who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to possess a firearm [2].

That was the law at the center of the Hunter Biden case. In October 2018, he bought a revolver at a Delaware gun shop and swore on a federal form that he was not using, and was not addicted to, illegal drugs, even though he was struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time, CNN reported [3].

According to the indictment, Hunter Biden “provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” He had the gun for about 11 days [3].

In June 2023, David Weiss, the prosecutor who had led the investigation since late 2018, announced a two-pronged agreement: Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two federal tax misdemeanors and enter a “diversion agreement,” under which the gun charge would be dropped in two years if he passed regular drug tests and stayed out of legal trouble [3].

On Sept. 14, 2023, after that plea deal collapsed under questioning from a federal judge, Weiss, by then a special counsel, indicted him. It was the first time in American history that the Justice Department had charged the child of a sitting president, CNN noted [3].

”I Will Accept the Outcome”

On June 11, 2024, a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, convicted Hunter Biden of all three felony charges related to the purchase, after deliberations that lasted only three hours over two days, the AP reported. He faced up to 25 years in prison, though as a first-time offender he might avoid prison entirely [4].

His father issued a statement that day. “I am the President, but I am also a dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden said. “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal” [5].

Then the Pardon

Less than six months later, his father changed course. On Dec. 1, 2024, Biden pardoned his son, and he argued the gun case should never have been brought. “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” Biden said. “Raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice” [6].

”People Didn’t Have the Confidence”

At the same briefing, a reporter she called Joey asked about the debt ceiling deal Congress had just passed. “Is the President concerned with the precedent that this debt ceiling standoff that we’re coming out of sets, perhaps, in terms of how a party — Republicans in this case — not in the White House might try to pass policies, pass their objectives, priorities in the future?” [1]

“Meaning we’ll — say that one more time,” Jean-Pierre said. Then she praised her boss. “I mean, look, I think that the fact that this is a President that was able to bring both sides together and get this done on behalf of the American people, I think that’s important.” [1]

“People didn’t have the confidence that the President would bring both sides together to make this happen. And it did,” she said [1].

By the Numbers

11 days: how long Hunter Biden had the revolver in 2018 [3].
3: felony counts he was convicted on [4].
3 hours: jury deliberations, spread over two days [4].
Up to 25 years: the maximum prison term he faced [4].
$750,000: the maximum fines he faced if convicted on all counts, according to court filings [3].
0: justices who dissented when the Supreme Court ruled on the drug-user gun ban in 2026 [7].

What Happened Next

The question Jean-Pierre wouldn’t answer reached the Supreme Court. On June 18, 2026, in United States v. Hemani, the justices held that the government’s prosecution of a Texas man under the drug-user provision “is inconsistent with the Second Amendment.” Ali Hemani had told agents he used marijuana about every other day; the government relied solely on that admitted use to charge him with having a gun in his home [7].

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, concurred in the judgment. The Justice Department had defended the prosecution [7].

The ruling did not strike down the law. A SCOTUSblog analysis said the decision “does not even settle Section 922(g)(3) itself,” leaving open whether the government may still prosecute “someone presently intoxicated while armed, an addict, or a user whose history differs from Hemani’s by a degree” [8].

More of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record are on HYGO News’ Karine Jean-Pierre record page.