Firearms Charge Against Man Who Used ‘Joe Biden Defense’ To Be Dismissed

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 file photo, a customer checks out a shotgun at Burdett & Son Outdoor Adventure Shop in College Station, Texas. The divide between those who favor gun control and those who don'... FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 file photo, a customer checks out a shotgun at Burdett & Son Outdoor Adventure Shop in College Station, Texas. The divide between those who favor gun control and those who don't has existed for decades, separating America into hostile camps of conservative vs. liberal, rural vs. urban. As the nation responds to the massacre of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., the gulf has rarely felt wider than now. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File) MORE LESS

It looks like the “Joe Biden defense” worked.

A prosecutor said he plans to dismiss a firearms charge against the Washington state man who said he just “did what Joe Biden told me to do” when he fired a shotgun to scare off what he thought were car burglars, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik said that Jeffrey C. Barton will instead face a charge of obstructing a police officer. A trial for Barton is scheduled for October.

Barton has acknowledged that he fired the gun in July 2013 to deter three men he thought were breaking into cars in Vancouver, Wash. His unorthodox defense came from the vice president’s comments on firearms during a 2013 town hall, when Biden told a questioner that he’d advised his wife, Jill, to “fire two blasts outside” from a double-barrel shotgun if she sensed any trouble at the family home.

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  1. Joe Biden has nothing to do with it. The DA is just doing the GOP’er thing. The law is clear: you are responsible for your own actions. It doesn’t matter what you heard or what someone else said. You did it…it was your judgement and you go down.

    He discharged a firearm in a public place. The DA has set a precedent for this being OK. It never was before. Who dies first?

    I wonder how far we are going to go with this? Is everything going to be politicized and subject to wacky Tea Party’isms? Looks like it.

  2. So whose advice can be used in court? Just the President and Vice-President? What if someone uses G. Gordon Liddy and his “Shoot federal agents in the head”. Would that count? A judge like this brings more of a mockery to the judicial branch of our government every day.

  3. Was the prosecutor explicit about why the charges were dropped? Was the “Joe Biden” defense the only defense? Could be drawing the wrong conclusion.

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