Joe Biden used to be on target in the 1980s when he talked about gun rights and the ineffectiveness of gun control. Fast forward to 2023, and hypocritical Biden is taking aim at Americans’ Second Amendment rights with a host of gun-grabbing proposals, which just shows that Biden used to know the facts about gun control — and that his new proposals aren’t really about stopping crime.
As Democrats around the country continue to release violent criminals and even murderers back onto the streets or impose stunningly light sentences, the Democrat party is simultaneously pontificating self-righteously about gun control as a supposed necessary solution to mass shootings. Fewer legal guns, fewer shootings, right?
Apparently, Chicago didn’t get the memo — the Windy City has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country, but it also has a disturbingly high violent crime rate, including shootings. It turns out gun control usually just prevents peaceful citizens from being able to defend themselves.
Biden once knew that gun control doesn’t stop crime — he said so in 1985. It’s still true. According to CrimeResearch.org, between 1998 and May 2022, a whopping 9 in 10 mass shootings occurred in gun-free zones (it’s 94% if you measure 1950 to 2022). That same data showed that only 14% of the shootings were “done solely with any type of rifle,” meaning that Biden’s plan to ban “assault weapons” wouldn’t solve the shooting crisis. As of 2020, a Secret Service report found that 42% of mass shootings involved illegally owned guns. Those are good facts to keep in mind.
Biden’s Twitter account has been inordinately preachy about gun control lately. One June 2 tweet said, “Tonight, the White House was illuminated orange to honor the countless victims of gun violence — stolen from us by a senseless and preventable epidemic — and the survivors whose lives are forever changed. Enough. I urge Congress to act.” The president whose FBI spies on Catholics even took a religious strain, tweeting, “As a nation we must ask: When in God’s name will we stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done? I’m sick and tired of it. We have to act.” And no, Biden won’t be securing the border with its criminal cartels anytime soon.
This is what commonsense gun reform looks like.
Now, it's up to Congress to get this done. pic.twitter.com/03PaYa5o9b
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 2, 2023
Biden has all kinds of suggestions. Ironically, when he was a senator, Biden not only voted for gun rights but also vocally argued against the effectiveness of gun control. I guess because Biden has dementia and can’t remember, the rest of us are supposed to follow suit.
We need to:
Ban assault weapons — and if we can’t, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21.
Ban high-capacity magazines.
Strengthen background checks.
Enact safe storage laws and red flag laws.
Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 2, 2022
If we go back to 1985, Biden was against gun control. The Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA) “allowed dealers to sell rifles, shotguns, and ammunition through the mail, and, eventually, the internet,” Breitbart quoted NBC.
FOPA further “limited federal inspections of firearms dealers while allowing them to sell guns at gun shows, which helped them grow in size and popularity. And it made it easier for private collectors to sell guns without obtaining a federal dealers’ license.” And on July 9, 1985, Senate Judiciary Committee member Joe Biden (D-Del.) sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) — gasp! — in his comments. He also voted for FOPA.
According to the Congressional Record for the Senate, as Breitbart reported, Biden depicted FOPA as a “balanced piece of legislation that protects the rights of private gun owners while not infringing on law enforcement’s ability to deal with those who misuse guns or violate laws.” He added, “During my 12 and a half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, nontraceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control.”
As noted above, Biden was spot-on. If only he were so honest now. As Founding Father Thomas Jefferson said, “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
