Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Biden’s Meandering, Sometimes Incoherent, SOTU Inevitably Includes Attack on 2A

Monday, February 13, 2023

Biden’s Meandering, Sometimes Incoherent, SOTU Inevitably Includes Attack on 2A

Joe Biden gave another State of the Union (SOTU) speech last week, and, as most anticipated, it included an attack on our right to keep and bear arms.  Biden has hammered away at this theme throughout his term in the White House, and there was nothing in his latest broadside against gun owners that showed any more insight, nuance, or understanding of the subject than his prior efforts.

Apparently, not only can you not teach an old dog new tricks, you cannot teach an old politician to update his script.

Biden speeches are well known for a number of characteristics, and most of them work against taking him seriously.  As is typical, he yelled angrily at times, garbled words, jumped randomly from subject to subject, seemed to verbally attack members of the audience, and leaned theatrically toward the microphone for emphasis.

Then, of course, there were a number of his trademark gaffes.  He was barely off the first screen of his teleprompter when he referred to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the Minority Leader.

But the one “policy proposal” that virtually everyone has learned to expect, and on which Biden again delivered, was a call for banning guns.  Not just more anti-gun laws, but specifically banning guns.  It happens incredibly frequently, even when he is making a speech about unrelated subjects.

So we were not the least bit surprised to hear Biden yell, “Band [sic] assault weapons’ now!” 

We also were not the least bit surprised to see him put his call for a ban into the context of not just banning semi-automatic rifles, but also banning semi-automatic handguns.

Immediately prior to demanding a ban, Biden had been talking about a recent horrific crime in California (where laws regulating firearms are a gun prohibitionist’s dream), and praised (rightfully) the actions of a young man named Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a murderer.

Biden twice referenced the murderer using a semi-automatic pistol, then immediately transitioned to shouting for his “ban.”

The particular firearm used in that crime could also have been described, under California law, as an “assault weapon.” So it was notable that Biden didn’t emphasize that point but instead switched back and forth between “semi-automatic pistol” and “assault weapon,” as if the terms were inherently interchangeable.

It is important to remember that the original idea behind mislabeling certain semi-automatic firearms as “assault weapons” was to blur the distinction between popular semi-automatic rifle platforms like AR’s and AK’s and actual machine guns.  This was made clear in the late 1980s, when gun-ban advocate Josh Sugarmann noted about AR and AK platform rifles:

“The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

Now it seems Biden and his anti-gun handlers are trying to expand the “confusion” to include any semi-automatic, not just popular rifles that happen to look like the fully automatic rifles used in the military.  This apparent intent to expand “confusion” is supported by Biden’s desire to ban 9mm semi-autos, arguably the most popular type of handgun purchased by law-abiding citizens for self-defense.  It is also supported by Biden implying that anyone who owns a semi-auto—the vast majority whom are law-abiding gun owners—is “sick.”

Biden will typically exploit the occasion of any high-profile firearm-related crime, no matter what sort of gun was involved, to reflexively call for a ban on “assault weapons.”

But last week – when delivering a scripted, practiced speech to Congress and the nation – he explicitly used the term “semi-automatic pistol” before segueing into a call to ban “assault weapons.” This appeared too calculated to be just another Biden gaffe. Biden now seems to be expanding the ever-malleable term “assault weapon” to include America’s most popular types of semi-automatic handguns, as well as its most popular types of semi-automatic rifles.

Fortunately, Americans seem to be catching on to Biden’s shtick.  A recent poll showed that Biden is underwater when it comes to support for banning America’s most popular guns, with a majority of 51% opposed to the concept. This may well be because the public is now wise to the slight of hand the gun ban lobby used to confuse machine guns and semi-automatic rifles and better educated on the dynamics of firearm-related crime.

For example, it is understood that – horrific as they are – public mass murders committed with firearms remain quite rare. Meanwhile, the much more frequent sorts of firearm-related homicides that rarely get national attention tend to be concentrated among a notably small subset of crime-involved individuals in relatively discrete geographic areas and to involve ordinary handguns. This doesn’t mean such crime is not a serious problem, but it does mean the risk to the public at large, or the criminal misuse of semi-automatic rifles, is not as great as the typical firearm prohibitionist would have you believe. And it also means robotic incantations to “ban assault weapons” will not get at the heart of the problem.

Although public support for banning guns may be on a steady decline, don’t expect that to lead to Biden making any changes to his marquee proposal to undermine the Second Amendment.  It may be the only position he has not changed in more than a half-century of his Washington, D.C., political career.

TRENDING NOW
North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

News  

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

With the free speech debate recently co-opted by one TV host’s use of false and incendiary remarks about his political opponents, it might have been easy to miss another important First Amendment story last week. 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.