President Joe Biden got one thing right when he announced his unforgivable pardon for his son Hunter Biden for gun-related crimes: The federal statute at issue is poorly written and inconsistently applied. Congress should amend it.

Hunter Biden was convicted of three offenses regarding his use of drugs while owning a gun. The president’s pardon statement concentrated on the two offenses involving lying, on a federal form required for his gun purchase, about his substance abuse. While the president didn’t concentrate on the third offense, that of illegally possessing the firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance, the federal forms at issue in the first two counts are part of the enforcement regime stemming from the statutory subclause in that third offense. The president’s comments on those two, therefore, are applicable to the third charge regarding the gun ownership itself.