U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Joe Biden waited until late in his State of the Union address to remind Congress and the country he hasn’t given up his lifelong war on the Second Amendment, nor has he overcome his penchant for prevarication when it comes to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
Well into his speech (just over the two-hour mark), Biden renewed his attack on gun owners, calling on Congress “to pass proven measures to reduce gun violence.”
“Pass universal background checks,” Biden demanded. “Why should anyone on a terrorist list be able to purchase a weapon? Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that hold up to a hundred rounds.”
He then went off script, trying a quip that immediately got him into trouble with one of the nation’s largest grassroots gun rights organizations, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Biden remarked, “You think the deer are wearing Kevlar vests?”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb issued a fiery rebuttal, stating, “Biden’s remark about deer and Kevlar vests was intended to perpetuate the myth that the Second Amendment is about hunting. If he honestly believes the right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Constitution just so we can head to a duck blind, he needs remedial courses on U.S. history and constitutional law.”
Biden tried to justify his demand, claiming, “These laws don’t infringe on the Second Amendment. They save lives.”
To which Gottlieb responded, “His claim that bans on so-called ‘assault weapons’ and original capacity magazines are ‘proven measures’ to reduce violent crime is demonstrably untrue. Just look at the FBI Uniform Crime Report.”
And in a reference to Biden’s opening remarks about the battle going on in Ukraine, Gottlieb added a further dig: “And we should note these are the same kinds of guns and magazines Ukrainian citizens are using to defend their freedom from a savage enemy bent on killing innocent civilians including women and children.”
Biden’s comments brought further reactions from members of Congress. When Biden called for the repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, calling it “the liability shield that makes gun manufacturers the only industry in America that can’t be sued,” Twitter lit up.
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) tweeted, “Big Biden Lie: gun manufacturers are the only industry that can’t be sued. Truth: If guns malfunction, the manufacturers can be sued. Not so with vaccines!”
Big Biden Lie: gun manufacturers are the only industry that can’t be sued.
Truth: If guns malfunction, the manufacturers can be sued. Not so with vaccines!
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 2, 2022
Radio Host Buck Sexton quickly reacted on Twitter, asserting, “Biden is just lying about the ‘liability shield’ for firearms manufacturers No other industry is made liable for criminal misuse of their product. But his base is full of hysterics who hate gun owners, so facts don’t matter.”
Biden is just lying about the “liability shield” for firearms manufacturers
No other industry is made liable for criminal misuse of their product
But his base is full of hysterics who hate gun owners, so facts don’t matter
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) March 2, 2022
A cornerstone of Biden’s political career spanning almost a half-century has been gun control. But he has been known to ignore facts and history, which has gotten him into trouble in the past. Gottlieb alluded to Biden’s repeated canard about how Americans were not allowed to own cannons when the Second Amendment was written some 240 years ago, an assertion that brought four “Pinocchios”—the designation for an outright lie—from Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler. Perhaps this was why he didn’t attempt to repeat the tale during his Tuesday night address.
Biden also called on Congress to “pass universal background checks,” even though it is widely accepted that criminals do not acquire their guns via normal commercial channels where they would have to submit to background checks. And, there are documented cases where mass shooters—who never before committed any sort of crime—legally bought their guns and passed one or more checks. For example, Isla Vista, California killer Elliot Rodger was one such offender, purchasing three handguns in California—a state that already required background checks on all gun transactions—in the months leading up to his 2014 rampage in which he fatally shot three people. Rodger passed all three checks and the state-mandated waiting periods.
Such facts have never seemed to matter to Biden, who has been unable to push his gun control agenda and has actually suffered some losses, most notably his inability to appoint retired ATF agent-turned-gun control advocate David Chipman to head the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a debacle covered extensively by AmmoLand News in 2021.
Perhaps the tempest erupting from Biden’s SOTU remarks is best summed up by CCRKBA’s Gottlieb, who observed, “There was a time in the distant past when people forgave Joe Biden for his gaffes and fabrications, but his crusade against gun owners and the firearms industry has clearly become an obsession for which he no longer gets a pass. He wants Nancy Pelosi and Capitol Hill Democrats to gut the Second Amendment, and by default, the entire Bill of Rights. That cannot be allowed.”
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
