President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Buffalo, NY, after the weekend supermarket shooting. There were no jokes of deer in body armor or confused claims about who could or could not own a firearm or a cannon back in the colonial days – but the commander-in-chief did mention “weapons of war” quite a bit and revealed the next step in his gun control plan – or, at least, that he intends to play the guilt card on anyone who won’t buy what he’s selling now that a mass shooting is fresh in the minds of the people.
The Subtle – and Not-So-Subtle – Hints
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a press gaggle Tuesday morning, in which she said, “President Biden will call on Congress to take action to keep weapons of war – weapons of war off our streets and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people who have serious mental illness that makes them a danger to themselves or others.”
Later, Ms. Jean-Pierre was asked what was being done to boost the efforts against domestic terrorism. She explained that the White House would call on Congress to “expand background checks, renew our ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and confirm Steve Dettelbach to head ATF.”
The new press secretary said that the country “is facing an epidemic on gun violence that is costing lives every day” when asked what was next for the administration “in terms of next steps on gun violence and gun reform.” She then named some examples of Biden’s executive actions on gun control since taking office, finishing up with, “But there’s so much more to do.”
Later, at the speech in Buffalo, the president dropped hints here and there about what he had in mind for the right to bear arms when he tied this tragedy and others like it to racists with “weapons of war.” Biden didn’t spend much of his speech talking about gun control, but the few words he dedicated to the issue spoke volumes. He said:
“Look, I’m not naïve. I know tragedy will come again. It cannot be forever overcome. It cannot be fully understood either. But there are certain things we can do. We can keep assault weapons off our streets. We’ve done it before. I did it when I passed the crime bill last time, and violence went down, shootings went down. We can’t prevent people from being radicalized to violence, but we can address the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism. We just need to have the courage to do that, to stand up.”
“We have to refuse to live in a country where black people going about a weekly grocery shopping can be gunned down by weapons of war deployed in a racist cause,” he said a little while later, once again tying “weapons of war” to domestic terrorism and racism. This isn’t by accident; it’s a carefully crafted narrative meant to vilify anyone who owns certain types of firearms to justify another assault weapons ban – which would prohibit considerably more than just the “military-style” AR-15 that Biden and his cohorts propagandize so heavily.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The president boasts of the former assault weapons ban’s success, but the stats don’t work out so favorably for his argument. A look at murders per year shows that the crime did drop off a bit once the 1994 law passed, after holding fairly steady for the first part of the 90s – but halfway through the ban, murder was on the rise again, only to level off just a couple of years before the proscription ended. Then, by 2009, the murder rate was dropping again. It’s almost as if the crime rate followed its own ebb and flow, independent of government interference.
Biden’s War on Guns
As Liberty Nation has demonstrated before, Joe Biden has effectively declared war on the right to keep and bear arms. Between his speech in Buffalo and Ms. Jean-Pierre’s comments during the press event, it’s clear the president will be pushing Congress to pass universal background checks, a new assault weapons ban, and of course to confirm his activist nominee to lead the ATF, Steve Dettelbach.
With Democrats holding an illusionary majority and the filibuster in the Senate, universal background checks and assault weapons bans may be tried – but only for the sake of virtue signaling to potential donors and voters. What one should expect to be actively pursued now is getting Biden’s buddy in charge of the agency, especially now that the Dems have proven Vice President Kamala Harris can, in fact, break a confirmation tie. There’s an old saying about not letting a good crisis go to waste. The Democrats seem, once again, ready to put that into action.
