President Biden spoke out against possession of what he called “high-caliber weapons” on Monday – as if suggesting that there should be restrictions on America’s most popular pistol, the 9mm pistol, and reiterating an earlier refutation claim that the Second Amendment prohibits gun ownership.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House after returning to Washington last weekend, which included a visit to the site of last week’s mass shooting in Texas, Biden described a visit to a trauma hospital in New York, where he said doctors showed him X – rays from gunshot wounds caused by various firearms.
“They said a .22-caliber bullet would hit the lungs and we could probably get it out – we could get it and save a life,” Biden said. “A 9 mm bullet blows the lungs out of the body.
“So the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s just no rational basis for that in terms of self-defense, hunting,” the president continued.
Later in his speech, Biden seemed to rule out the possibility of taking serious action on weapons, saying: “I can not dictate these things. I can do the things I have done, and I will continue to do whatever action I can take. But I can’t ban weapons. I can’t change the background check. I can not do this.”
Joe and Jill Biden pay tribute to a memorial at Rob.AP Elementary School
Biden’s statements about 9mm pistols are in line with his rhetoric before he entered the White House. At a fundraiser in Seattle in 2019, for example, then-candidate Biden asked his audience, “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons, including pistols with 9mm bullets and can withstand 10 rounds or more?”
According to Shooting Industry magazine, 9mm pistols accounted for 56.8% of all pistols produced in the United States in 2019. A total of more than 15.1 million 9mm pistols were produced in that country in 2010. The possibility of outlawing or otherwise regulating such weapons is unlikely to begin among conservatives and defenders of the right to bear arms.
“Remember that the Constitution, the Second Amendment, has never been absolute,” Biden said. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed.”
Biden seemingly rejected executive action on gun control.AFP via Getty Images
Biden has made this claim before, most recently when he announced new regulations to stop the proliferation of so-called “ghost weapons” and they have repeatedly been declared untrue by investigators.
“The Second Amendment does not impose restrictions on individual gun ownership,” PolitiFact said in April when it assessed his allegation as untrue.
The site quotes the text of the Constitution: “A well-regulated militia, which is necessary for the security of the free state, the right of people to hold and bear arms, must not be violated.
Despite widespread public outrage over Tuesday’s massacre at a primary school in Uwalde, Texas, and the racially motivated May 14 shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, Biden said he had not yet spoken to Republicans about potential gun control legislation. , but expressed hope for a compromise.
“I think things have gone so bad that everyone is becoming more rational about it,” he said.
Biden called Mitch McConnell a “rational Republican.” Getty Images
Asked if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Authorizing Sen. John Cornin (R-Texas) to work with Democrats, could work, he said: “I don’t know.”
“McConnell is a rational Republican. Cornin is too, “he added.
Without Republican support, Democrats are powerless to pass any 50-50 Senate gun legislation unless they can temporarily remove the 60-vote threshold for the filibuster to pass most bills.
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