With former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden resurfacing in the news in recent weeks, it’s worth a few moments to consider a far less known name: Alexander Ledvina.

Ledvina, as Reason magazine recently detailed, was convicted in 2023 of failing to disclose his past drug use when purchasing a firearm. For this, he was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.

If the nature of his crime sounds familiar, it likely is because Hunter Biden violated the same law — but didn’t serve any sentence after his father granted him a presidential pardon.

Our point in recalling the conviction and sentencing of Alexander Ledvina is not to rehash Hunter Biden’s pardon, which our editorial board addressed in our Dec. 7, 2024, edition — we called it an “abuse of power” and expressed reservations about Democrats’ hypocrisy and double-standards.

Instead, our return to noting this sort of double-standards is to urge our lawmakers to exercise caution.

The unfortunate reality is that our laws are too often disproportionately applied. The list of well-connected and wealthy figures — celebrities and otherwise — who have evaded the same level of punishment to which average Americans are subjected is exhaustingly long.

This is, of course not to advocate for anarchy — we appreciate the hard work police and prosecutors do to keep our communities safe. We recognize that the system too often ties their hands in addressing crime and public safety

But it is still just as reasonable to press lawmakers to do better in ensuring all Americans, regardless of how much money they have, how famous they are or to whom they are related, are held to the same standards.

Nor is it, by any means, our intent to suggest disparities in our criminal justice system are the only reason — or even the primary reason — to be skeptical of so-called “gun control” policies. There are much graver concerns about their effectiveness, about the erosion of our Second Amendment liberties and the erosion of other liberties that too often seems to occur in tandem with encroachments on the right to keep and bear arms.

But as we continue to highlight both the importance of our liberties and the practical reasons why intrusive limitations are unlikely to prove effective, we feel we should also acknowledge the legitimate fears many Americans have that new, more invasive gun control laws would not be fairly applied and could lead to a further warping of another cherished American value: Equal treatment before the law.