Speaking from the White House after his Memorial Day address, President Biden apparently went off script and took the gun control narrative even further by hinting at a ban on 9mm rounds, effectively making useless the most popular handgun type in the nation. Should Biden and his fellow Democrats push forward with this, it has the potential to be the most devastating attack on the Second Amendment so far.
Biden related a conversation he claims to have had at a hospital discussing exit wounds. “They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body,” he said.
“So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting,” the president implored. It should be noted that 9mm is not considered a high-caliber round. Based on Mr. Biden’s words, does it seem plausible that he intends to target not just the ammunition but also the firearms capable of firing such rounds?
Take the Bullets, Take the Guns
The reality is that if lawmakers were able to restrict or eliminate the production or sale of 9mm ammunition, it would render obsolete a huge chunk of the firearms in the United States. The ATF’s Annual Firearms Manufacturing & Export Report finds that pistols produced in 9mm accounted for 56.8% of new pistols made in 2019.
According to the Shooting Industry website:
“In 2010, pistols produced in 9mm constituted 27.9% of the segment (630,217 of 2,258,450 pistols in the U.S.). Fast-forward to 2019, the proportion of 9mm’s market share increased substantially, rising to 56.8% (the top mark of the decade) when 1,729,834 were produced.
“For the entire decade, 9mm pistols made up 42.8% of all pistols produced domestically (15,111,566 of 35,315,097).”
So for the last ten years, more than 40% of US pistols have been made with 9mm ammunition in mind.
Not Biden’s First Rodeo
(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
This is by no means the first occasion on which Joe Biden has discussed the type of ammunition available to the American public. Back in November 2019, whilst on the one hand saying he supported the Second Amendment, the former vice president decried what he called “absolutionist” arguments and cast his first aspersion at the ubiquitous 9mm. He asked, “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons, including pistols with 9mm bullets, and can hold ten or more rounds?”
But back to the present day, and no Biden speech would be complete without a reiteration of his now-voluminously debunked claims regarding the constitutionality of firearms. “Remember, the constitution was never absolute,” he repeated. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said. “You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”
Every major fact-checker has declared such talk of cannons as “false,” a reality that Team Biden must be aware of, despite continuing to use the claim … perhaps in the hope that Americans will not bother to read past the headline. An individual certainly was able to go out and purchase a cannon and there was no restriction on the amount of weaponry one could own.
A Call to Action
The president is at least aware that he cannot stop the sale or manufacture of 9mm ammo from the Oval Office. He lamented his own lack of power in this arena, saying, “I can’t dictate this stuff … I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that.”
It’s not unusual for Biden and other gun control advocates to overreach when discussing such topics. With the popular usage of 9mm rounds, the president’s statements are likely to incite a backlash from consumers on all sides of the debate.
