Biden is great at selling guns, but not F-15s
The pres calls for an "assault weapon ban", people stock up on firearms
Pres. Biden mocked Second Amendment supporters this week, saying, “For those brave, right-wing Americans who say it’s all about keeping America as independent and safe: If you want to fight against a country, you need an F-15. You need something a little more than a gun.”
As he said this, gun sales in America exploded.
The president of the United States threatening citizens that they need an F-15 to protect against a tyrannical government was totally bizarre.
“Assault-weapon ban” again
The context was Biden saying for the gazillionth time: “I’m determined to ban assault weapons in this country. Determined. I did it once before, and I’ll do it again.”
No, he won’t.
When I wrote this story in June on Biden’s obsession with getting back his old “assault weapon” ban, I counted that he had called for it on 20 different occasions since being president. I stopped counting because it has become political white noise.
Now, even though the House passed it, the bill is going nowhere in the Senate. And even if Biden could get it into law, it would quickly be overturned in a court in the new post-Bruen Supreme Court standard.
The president also said that during the ban, “For 10 years, mass shootings were down — 10 years in a row.”
That is just factually incorrect.
Mass shootings went up and down during those 10 years, ranging from two to six events per year.
Gun Salesman
The more Biden talked this summer about gun control, the more people ran out and bought guns.
He claimed in the speech this week that he has “two shotguns at home.” (You’ll remember he famously said he trained his wife Jill to take a shotgun outside and shoot into the sky if she faces a home intruder.)
Biden also said he’s not “taking away anybody’s guns”, but he’s driving people to stock up with his rhetoric.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) released the stats for gun sales in August which show there were 1,286,816 background checks – 50,000 more than in July. The NSSF uses adjusted NICS background checks to get a count on firearm transfers.
Although August this year was a decrease compared to the big gun sales years during the pandemic, there still have been 37 months straight of background checks over one million.
“Americans are choosing their gun rights by the millions each month while gun control politicians talk only of efforts to deprive them of their Constitutional rights. They are voting with their wallets,” said NSSF’s Mark Oliva about the August stats.
“Politicians would be wise to heed to the will of Americans lawfully exercising their Constitutional rights and instead focus their efforts on locking up criminals that misuse firearms.”
Polls for gun control
So why does Joe keep saying the same thing?
He wants to keep the majority in the House and Senate in the midterms.
A poll this week showed 71% of Americans want stricter gun laws.
While this is a high number, the poll is skewed in that it surveys gun laws that are already in effect, like banning purchases for people convicted of domestic assault and expanded background checks for 18 - 21-year-olds. (The link to the new UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll is below in sources if you want to dig into it.)