I’ve seen a lot of headlines today about Joe Biden’s comments at a California fundraiser about needing an F-16 if you want to take on the federal government, but that was just one of many whoppers the anti-gunner-in-chief let loose before deep-pocketed Democratic donors this week. Biden not only ignored the recent lessons from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s resurgence (despite not having an Air Force, the group still managed to not only wrest control of the national government but collected hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry when Biden hastily abandoned the country in 2021), but tried to rewrite our own history as well.
I’m surprised the White House Press Office didn’t engage in a bit of Big Brotherly cleanup of Biden’s remarks before disseminating them, but here they are in all their ignorant glory.
And the fact that the NRA has such overwhelming power — you know, the NRA is the only outfit in the nation that we cannot sue as an institution. They got — they — before this — I became president, they passed legislation saying you can’t sue them. Imagine had that been the case with tobacco companies. How many more people would be dead today if we weren’t able to rein in tobacco companies and the use of tobacco? Well, it’s that way now. We can’t.
Uhh, you can definitely sue the NRA. Just ask New York Attorney General Letitia James. I’m guessing that Biden was referring to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act approved on a bipartisan basis in 2005 that prohibited lawsuits seeking to blame gun manufacturers for the actions of criminals, but even the PLCAA still allows for liability lawsuits against gun makers, and states like Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have sought to do an end run around the law by going after gun makers under public nuisance statutes.
And — and, by the way, you know one of the reasons why the AR-15 is so strongly supported by so many folks in that — in that industry? Number one, it’s the cheapest weapon to make and it’s the highest profit motive they have for any weapon that is made. It makes more money to sell an AR-15 than any other weapon you can buy.
It’s cheaper to make an AR-15 than a pistol? I have no idea where Biden came up with this line of attack, but I did run across a Bloomberg News story from 2018 that claims modern sporting rifles offer bigger profits to manufacturers than handguns, though there was really no evidence to support the assertion other than a quote or two from a firearm industry analyst who maintained that the customization of modern sporting rifles and the polymers typically used in their production are cheaper than old-fashioned revolvers crafted from steel.
And so, we have to change — there’s a lot of things we can change, because the American people by and large agree you don’t need a weapon of war. I’m a Second Amendment guy. I taught it for four years, six years in law school. And guess what? It doesn’t say that you can own any weapon you want. It says there are certain weapons that you just can’t own. Even during when it was passed, you couldn’t own a cannon. You can’t own a machine gun. (Laughter.) No, I’m serious.
Yeah, I know he’s serious. He’s also completely wrong. As numerous outlets including Politifact have pointed out, you could indeed own a cannon in 1791. In fact, you can own one today. As for machine guns, while they weren’t around at the time the Second Amendment was ratified, the federal government didn’t actually prohibit the purchase of new machine guns until the mid 1980s, not the 1970s. It’s true as well that the Second Amendment doesn’t say “you can own any weapon you want.” It also doesn’t say “you can’t own this type of gun because we think it’s too scary or inappropriate for civilians.” It says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, period.
So what’s the deal with the idea that it’s an absolute — you know, I love these guys who say the Second Amendment is — you know, the tree of liberty is water with the blood of patriots. Well, if want to do that, you want to work against the government, you need an F-16. You need something else than just an AR-15. Anyway.
The generic point — (laughter) — the generic point I want to make is — and I’m going to end this because I’m bored myself now. (Laughter.)
You can tell how seriously Biden (and his donors) take this issue, can’t you? Laughter and boredom are the norm, just as long as those hefty checks clear. Never mind the hypocrisy of the president’s remarks coming so close to his own son managing to avoid felony gun charges thanks to a sweetheart deal from the U.S. Attorney in Delaware. Never mind the millions of Americans Biden wants to turn into felons for maintaining possession of their pistol stabilizing braces, or the millions more he’d like to prohibit from owning a gun because they might have a non-violent felony or misdemeanor conviction in their past, or the tens of millions of current gun owners who magically lose their right to keep and bear arms when they cross the border of the state where they live and enter an anti-2A locale like New York, New Jersey, or California.
It’s actually fitting that the president’s comments on gun control ended with (Laughter), because Biden’s views on the Second Amendment are a joke… or at least they would be if they didn’t represent the weaponization of the federal government against those who dare to exercise their fundamental civil right to keep and bear arms.
