Progressively More Mindless on Gun Control

[Charlie T Waite]

It’s hard to imagine that Joe Biden could outdo himself with a gun control proposal even more absurd than his DNA-activated smart gun, but our imagination is apparently more constrained by truth and facts than that of the former vice president. 

On September 2, while being interviewed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Biden opined that it was “absolutely mindless” that “we don’t have elimination of assault-type weapons and magazines that can have, hold multiple bullets in them,” adding that such measures are entirely compatible with the Second Amendment. 

Biden already supports a ban of “high-capacity magazines” (more than ten rounds). Assuming this new ban refers only to detachable magazines capable of holding more than a single round, Biden has still managed to move the needle on the daffy meter from just “bizarre” to “entirely unhinged.” Law enforcement officers, members of the military, and the vast majority of American gun owners would be disarmed under this new scheme.  

Of course, this “multiple bullet” test may be less of an issue given that Biden also proposes the “elimination of assault-type weapons.” While it is not particularly clear what he means, his gun control platform currently refers to a prohibition on “military-style firearms designed to fire rapidly” – namely, modern semiautomatic guns used by ordinary Americans for hunting and recreational shooting.

Besides an “assault weapon” ban, the 2020 Democratic candidates almost uniformly embrace repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, imposing government buybacks of firearms, and national gun licensing. Biden’s latest idea may be nothing other than an effort to distinguish himself as even more virtuously anti-Second Amendment than the rest of the bunch. If that’s the case, though, one of these presidential hopefuls immediately rose to the challenge. Stuffing the gun-control clown car with yet another ridiculous idea,Marianne Williamson wrote (in an op ed for the Washington Post, no less) that not only must “assault weapons” be banned, but the “bullets needed to shoot them” need to be outlawed, too.

Frontrunner Biden’s campaign website proclaims “Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead.” For America’s gun owners, that can only mean more dodgy political posturing aimed at extinguishing fundamental rights and freedoms.