OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden has once again threatened to impose a new ban on so-called “assault weapons” similar to one he helped pass as a senator early in Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Biden renewed his vow during remarks at a White House event, a clip of which was posted on social media by The Post Millennial on Friday.
“We’re gonna ban assault weapons. We banned it once, we’re gonna do it again, and the number of bullets that can be in a clip,” he said, using the popular vernacular for ammunition magazine.
Biden: "We’re gonna ban assault weapons. We banned it once, we're gonna do it again, and the number of bullets that can be in a clip." pic.twitter.com/hD0fzrSS1T
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 20, 2023
Biden was immediately blasted and ridiculed online for his remark.
“1) Define “assault” weapon. 2) Saying ‘clip’ is proof-positive that Biden has no idea what he is talking about here,” said one user.
1) Define “assault” weapon.
2) Saying “clip” is proof-positive that Biden has no idea what he is talking about here.
— C. Swickster 🇺🇸 (@cdswick) January 20, 2023
No you’re not. You say that, but you’re not. You can’t do it without Congress and even then, there’s no guarantee the SCOTUS won’t strike it down.
— Dr. Jonny Republic If You Can Keep It 🇺🇸 (@JonDougherty10) January 21, 2023
“Don’t take anyone serious that uses the word clip,” another user added.
“Someone hasn’t been paying attention to the Supreme Court rulings and it shows,” said another, in response to recent high court rulings upholding the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear firearms.
That said, Biden isn’t the only one pushing for a new ban. In May, Vice President Kamala Harris used the occurrence of a tragic mass shooting in order to stump for major new federal gun legislation.
Following the shooting, famed Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley noted on his blog that Biden had recently repeated false statements regarding the history of the Second Amendment while also failing to acknowledge the limits the amendment imposes while calling for a new law cracking down on “assault weapons.” He added that an outright ban “would run into serious constitutional challenges.”
“We are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine. We know what works on this. Let’s have an assault weapons ban,” Harris told a reporter as she prepared to board Air Force 2 en route to Texas to attend funerals of some of the Ulvade victims.
“You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed? It was designed for a specific purpose – to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society,” Harris lamented.
In July, the then-Democrat-controlled House passed an assault weapons ban with the help of two Republicans.
“When I signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the first significant piece of gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years – I said that there was still work to be done to keep our communities safe and keep dangerous firearms out of dangerous hands,” Biden said at the time.
“When guns are the number one killer of children in America, when more children die from guns than active-duty police and active-duty military combined, we have to act. Today, House Democrats acted by unifying to pass an assault weapons ban to keep weapons of war off our streets, save lives in this country, and reduce crime in our communities,” the president added.
“The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action. The Senate should move quickly to get this bill to my desk, and I will not stop fighting until it does. There can be no greater responsibility than to do all we can to ensure the safety of our families, our children, our homes, our communities, and our nation,” he said.
The bill did not make it through the then-evenly-divided Senate.
To Turley’s point that such legislation would face a substantial constitutional challenge, in late August, a federal judge blocked an assault weapons ban that was set to go into effect in a Colorado county, becoming the second federal court in as many months to strike down such a ban.
