President Joe Biden commemorated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last week by renewing his promise to ban so-called “assault weapons.”
By now, President Biden’s arguments in favor of gun control appear to be the product of a well-worn mental groove, and his remarks at the January 16 Annual MLK Day Breakfast held by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network were no exception (see the 22:11 mark of this video):
And I’ll say what I said then I’ll say it over and over again. I am going to get assault weapons banned. I did it once. I'm going to do it again. There’s no social redeeming value. Deer aren’t wearing Kevlar vests out there. What the hell you need an assault-- No, I’m serious.
Biden has used the same, lame “deer in Kevlar vests” claim upteen times (May 2021, June 2021, March 2022, and in September 2022, for instance) and there’s no doubt we’ll be hearing this dated, unconvincing trope in the future.
He went on to resurrect another of his hackneyed and disturbing lines about America’s gun owners – that their guns, and the Second Amendment by extension, are useless if the government decides to bomb its own constituents into oblivion (at 22:40):
I love my right-wing friends who talk about the Tree of Liberty as water of the blood of patriots. If you need work about taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s. You don’t need an AR-15. I'm serious.
He added (and make of it what you will), “Think about it. Think about the rationale for this. It’s about money — money, money, money.”
And, because no Biden speech on gun control is complete without some unintelligible nonsense (think smart guns and “we have the capacity now in a James Bond-style to make sure no one can pull a trigger unless their DNA and fingerprint is on [the gun],” or, “I believe in the Second Amendment, but nobody says you can have a round…a…a magazine with a hundred clips in it”), this time he told his audience that he was going to “ban the number of bullets that go in a magazine. There’s no – no need for any of that.”
Biden demonstrated, too, that his cluelessness wasn’t limited to firearms. He again raised the inference that law enforcement officers needlessly resort to deadly force, and that better-trained officers would shoot at arms or legs, instead. “We have to retrain cops as to why should you always shoot for that with deadly force? The fact is, if you need to use your weapon, you don’t have to do that.” One commentator responded, “Ole’ shoot ‘em in the leg is back at it. This man has no actual law enforcement experience.”
Many of Biden’s supporters will dismiss his failed jokes, whispered asides, and often unintelligible train of thought as harmless gaffes, the loveable trademarks of an aging politician. But as much as Joe Biden enjoys portraying himself as a homespun everyman, he’s still the most anti-Second Amendment president ever. You don’t need to read between the lines of his remarks (predictably tedious as they may be) to recognize a deep contempt for America’s gun owners and lack of respect for their rights.
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