Well, pal, your party has been in control of Congress for the past several years but, for some reason, you never managed to accomplish much.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, when referencing recent mass shootings in Virginia and Colorado Springs, President Biden lamented the fact that “semiautomatic weapons” were still readily available for purchase:
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BIDEN: “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick.” pic.twitter.com/pFyQcNXklW
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 24, 2022
Biden followed up by calling for a total ban on any and all semiautomatic firearms of any kind, a sweeping move that could essentially turn tens of millions of Americans into criminals overnight for what amounts to owning their grandfather’s semi-auto shotgun:
President Joe Biden called the sale of semiautomatic weapons ‘sick’ and continued to call for an assault weapons ban and better red flag laws in the wake of mass shootings at a Chesapeake, Virginia Walmart and a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club.
‘The idea that we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick,’ Biden told reporters on Thursday, during a quick stop at the Nantucket Fire Department, to bring first responders some Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. ‘It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.’
As he walked up to reporters, he also pushed back on criticism of red flag laws – that they could be used to target people and take away their guns, instead of remove weapons from individuals who are truly dangerous – calling that notion ‘ridiculous.’
He mentioned how Delaware, with the help of his son, the late Beau Biden, had one of the first red flag laws in the country ‘and it made a lot of difference.’
Biden said he would continue to push for an assault weapons ban.
‘I’m going to try,’ he said. ‘I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.’
What is an “assault weapon” versus a “semiautomatic weapon,” Biden couldn’t explain the difference if he tried. Everything from shotguns to rifles, to self-defense, concealed carry handguns are available as “semi-automatic.” One pull of the trigger fires one round. Another pull of the trigger fires another round, etc… They are not fully automatic, a term used to describe a military-grade weapon in which holding down the trigger will cause it to continue firing until you release the trigger.
What Biden’s talking about here is essentially a nationwide ban on the vast, vast majority of firearms owned and used by citizens today for a variety of reasons.
Setting aside Biden’s word salad of “assault weapons,” which is a term created by the gun control lobby to describe any gun they don’t like, and his call for a ban on “semi-automatic weapons,” Democrats have failed on this front for years.
Even with the most recent iteration of gun control legislation following the tragic mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, gun bans were stuck in Congress thanks to Democrats holding them up. In essence, Biden is unable to wrangle his own caucus on this issue and Democrats have never been able to come to the table with legitimate and reasonable ways to tighten gun laws without taking rights away from millions of law-abiding gun owners.
Meanwhile, in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, prosecutions for gun crimes are down so what’s the point of passing new gun laws when we’re not even enforcing the existing laws on the books?
It’s a quagmire of failure on multiple levels and Biden spouting off about a subject with which he is completely unfamiliar won’t advance the conversation.
