Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden renewed his push for banning semi-automatic firearms that he termed “weapons of war” on Wednesday despite the fact that Americans are buying guns in record numbers after months of violent rioting, surges in violent crime in Democrat-controlled cities, and calls from Democrats to “defund the police.”
“Weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Biden tweeted. “When I was a senator, I took on the [NRA] and secured a 10-year ban on assault weapons — and as president, I’ll ban these weapons again.”
Biden has pushed far-left positions on gun control. He has called for banning semi-automatic firearms and “clips that have multiple bullets in them,” which could effectively ban the overwhelming majority of handguns, all semi-automatic shotguns and rifles, and many hunting rifles which use magazines. Biden has often made remarks that indicate that he does not understand firearms, including claims that “rational” gun “policy” includes things like banning “50 clips in a weapon” – a statement that does not make any sense. Biden has dismissed heroic acts by citizens who stopped mass shootings by claiming that they should not have had the specific gun that they used to stop the shooting. Biden also attacked Texas Governor Greg Abbott last year for signing a bill into law that allowed churchgoers to carry firearms with them to church.
The Daily Wire highlighted Biden’s views on the Second Amendment in a profile piece last September:
Biden was a leading proponent and sponsor of the federal “assault weapons” ban, a subset of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Throughout his career, he has generally been supportive of curtailing Second Amendment rights. Biden has also supported mandating five-day waiting periods for gun purchases, as well as closing the alleged “gun show loophole.” Biden supports a ban on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America.
The National Rifle Association responded to Biden by writing on Twitter, “Clearly Joe didn’t write this tweet. The complete sentences gave it away. Joe and his supporters fear-monger using words like ‘assault weapon’ to describe America’s most popular home defense rifle – the AR-15 – or ‘AR-14’ to Joe. Joe – We’ll say it real slow. Come and Take It.”
Clearly Joe didn't write this tweet. The complete sentences gave it away.
Joe and his supporters fear-monger using words like "assault weapon" to describe America's most popular home defense rifle – the AR-15 – or "AR-14" to Joe.
Joe – We'll say it real slow. Come and Take It. https://t.co/Mr6xpKsABM
— NRA (@NRA) August 5, 2020
The gun ban push by Biden comes as violent riots have broken out in numerous Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S. in recent months, including in Portland, Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, Richmond, Washington, D.C., and others.
Numerous Democrats across the U.S. have also pushed “defund the police” movements in an apparent attempt to placate rioters.
The three months that had the highest number of background checks completed in history have all happened this year. As of early June, an estimated 2.5 million Americans purchased their first gun this year.
“Plenty of Democrats own guns, many of them the blue-collar Democrats who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and whom Joe Biden hopes to woo back,” The Wall Street Journal noted Wednesday. “Forty percent of first-time buyers are women. An NSSF survey of gun retailers reports that sales to black Americans are up 58.2% for the first six months of this year, the largest increase for any demographic group.”