It wasn’t the guns.

Or the bullets.

It was the Tweets.

Jack Jones?

Victim.

The legal system?

Rigged.

Criticism of Jones’ alleged actions concerning those unregistered, loaded handguns that showed up at Logan Airport security Friday night in a bag with Jones’ name on it?

Racist.

Those who express criticism of his alleged actions?

Bigots.

That is the summation of the public defense offered by Jones’ attorney Rosemary Scapicchio Tuesday. “He had no intention of bringing any guns into Logan Airport that day,” she added of her client.

Scapicchio’s defense of Sean Ellis, whose 1995 first-degree murder conviction was overturned after spending 22 years in prison, was featured in the Netflix “Trial 4” docuseries.

She attended Suffolk Law School at the same time as Mrs. OBF.

She’s good.

Jones pleaded not guilty to several firearms-related charges Tuesday and remains free on $30,000 bail. Jones will be back in court on Aug. 18.

If only Jones was a member of the Biden family.

For now, the real crime here is what was said about Scapicchio’s client.

“It’s the social media, and the media, who have turned him into a thug, who  have labeled him a ‘thug,’ with no evidence whatsoever. This is not a situation where Mr. Jones ever wanted to be a thug or thought of as a thug. But because he’s a young Black man, all of a sudden, he’s a thug,” Scapicchio said.

“That’s what happened here. There’s no evidence of that whatsoever. And it’s disrespectful to Mr. Jones and everyone else. Every other Black man in America who’s young and Black is called a thug because he happens to be Black in this situation. This is the institutional racism that we deal with every day in the court system. There’s no indication in any way that he was disrespectful (or) did anything to say that he wanted to be a gang member or a thug. He’s a young Black man charged with a crime,” Scapicchio continued.

“Therefore, he must want to be a gang member. He must want to be a thug. That label that was attached to him through social media almost got him fired. And it was completely unfounded.”

That’s nine mentions of Jones being a “thug” by his attorney in just 54.2 seconds.

Move over Jim Crow. Here comes Pat Patriot.

Unfortunately, Rosemary’s baby here isn’t backed by the evidence.

A Google search turned up no mention of “Jack Jones” and “thug” before today. An examination of Twitter found four Tweets referring to Jones as a “thug” on the social platform in the 85 hours between reports of Jones’ arrest and noon Tuesday.

The posters had 87, 217, 299 and 6,194 followers. None were verified nor linked to other platforms. The Tweets earned a total of 958 impressions as of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

This was more than an hour after Scapicchio’s Tony-award worthy effort outside East Boston Municipal Court.

There’s nowhere on planet Earth outside Massachusetts and Manhattan where an attorney could credibly make this case and hope it will work. But Scapicchio knows her audience.

The introduction of the race card leaves the Patriots and Robert Kraft in a bind.

Scapicchio thanked the Patriots for making sure Jones stayed “almost” fired.

She also made it clear that firing Jones would make the Patriots or NFL no better than those four people on Twitter who called her client a thug. And her words and actions made it certain Jones is going to stay in Foxboro for a while.

Or else.

Imagine if the Patriots were to “fire” Jones?

Kraft should be warned.

All those platitudes about Black Lives Mattering, all those knees during the National Anthem, all that criminal justice reform, and all that quality time with Meek Mill won’t mean a thing once Kraft is accused by an actual social media mob of throwing a young, yet-to-be convicted Black man under the bus.

The four Tweets in which Jones was called a thug will be replaced by four million images of Kraft and his old BFF Donald Trump.

“Everyone turned him into this thug and this wannabe gangster with no evidence whatsoever. We’re suggesting you do your research before you start writing like that,” Scapicchio added.

“Research.”

If only, counselor. If only.

Scapicchio threw plenty of haymakers on Tuesday. Her biggest challenge, and that facing her client, may be what’s in the police report.

Or so says defense attorney Mark Bederow.

“The issue is whether Jones ‘knowingly’ possessed the firearms when he had them at the airport,” Bederow told me via email. “Jones’ lawyer is laying the foundation for ‘I didn’t know they were in the bag’ . . . Prosecutors will track the guns, serial numbers and see if they come back to him. They’ll look at his social media.  And they’ll likely move to compel Jones to provide a DNA sample to compare to the guns.”

“It’ll be interesting to see what evidence will support his ‘I didn’t know’ defense. For now, it seems like a stretch, and he appears to be in real trouble and at serious risk for doing time,” Bederow added.

For the Patriots, the timing and details of this case delivered a poignant reminder of their dalliance with mass-murderer Aaron Hernandez.

And the Bad Old Days in general.

The 10th anniversary of Hernandez’s arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd comes on Monday. Hernandez’s troubled past was not news to anyone in the Patriots organization. Rather it was a badge of honor for the likes of Bill Belichick and Kraft. They truly believe they could transform a real-life murderous thug into an honorable citizen for the price of some hugs and a five-year, $40 million contract extension.

It tragically did not work.

If only Hernandez played the race card.

He may be catching balls from Mac Jones this se

ason.

(Bill Speros (@BillSperos and @RealOBF) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com)