Biden Loses Argument Over Gun Ban With Michigan Voter

A campaign stop at an auto factory under construction in Michigan went off the rails for Joe Biden on Monday, as the former vice-president told a worker he was “full of sh*t” for accusing Biden of wanting to erode the right to keep and bear arms.

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Over the course of 90 seconds or so, Biden referred to the AR-15 as an “AR-14,” claimed that he supports the Second Amendment, before comparing the most commonly sold rifle in the United States to a machine gun and declaring that both are illegal, and questioned why anyone would need 100 rounds of ammunition. Oh, and he refused to answer the voter’s questions, including why Biden wants to ban so-called assault weapons, but isn’t calling for a handgun ban despite pistols being used far more frequently in crimes.

On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. we break down Biden’s buffoonish comments on your right to keep and bear arms as well as ask the candidate a few questions of our own, like “If you’re such a Second Amendment supporter, can you name one gun control law that you think would or does infringe on the right to keep and bear arms?”

We’re going to be told a gajillion times between now and Election Day that “Joe Biden supports the Second Amendment,” but we’re never going to be told how he supports our right to keep and bear arms. The media will, by and large, let him get away with vacuous statements like that, but that doesn’t mean voters should. If your only proposals regarding firearms involve new gun control laws, you’re not a Second Amendment supporter. If you want to criminalize the possession of commonly owned firearms and magazines, you’re not a Second Amendment supporter. If you believe that possessing a firearm without a government-issued permission slip should be a federal felony, you’re not a Second Amendment supporter.

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Joe Biden is no Second Amendment supporter. That much is obvious. What’s just as obvious is the fact that the media is going to cover as much as they can for Biden. Take a look at some of the responses from the commentariat to Biden’s angry and ignorant response to the voter.

That’s Politico cartoonist Matt Weurker, with perhaps my favorite response of all, given that his description bears absolutely no resemblance to Biden’s actual remarks at all. Others, including David Frum, are also acting like Biden somehow won this exchange.

If you think this clip makes Biden look terrific, then you’re just as ill-informed and ignorant as the candidate is about the firearms that he wants to ban, as well as how he wants to do it. Biden talked about AR-15’s being illegal like machine guns, which was supposed to be (I think, anyway) a nod to his plan to require owners of AR-15’s to either register them under the National Firearms Act, or turn them in to the government via a compensated confiscation (what Biden calls a “buyback”). Biden’s plan also calls for owners of “high capacity” magazines to do the same thing; register them with the government under the NFA or turn them over to Uncle Sam.

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Now, to non-gun owners maybe this sounds like a good idea, but it’s actually completely unworkable. First of all, there may be as many as one billion magazines in the United States that would fall under Biden’s definition of “high capacity.” At ten bucks a magazine, you’re looking at a $10-billion investment to try to buy them from gun owners, and there’s no way to register an ammunition magazine under the NFA because they’re not serialized.

Biden also wants to register some 15-million firearms that are already legally owned under the National Firearms Act, a process which would require existing gun owners to be fingerprinted, pay a $200 fee (per firearm and magazine), and wait for government approval to continue to possess their arms. As NSSF points out, gun owners now are already having to wait up to nine months for NFA approval, so you can imagine the wait times if Americans are attempting to register millions of firearms at one time.

That doesn’t even address the constitutional concerns over Biden’s proposals, which are many. It also doesn’t address the fact that Biden says he’s putting Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke in charge of gun control if he wins election, and O’Rourke’s still out there bleating about the need for “mandatory buybacks.”

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Biden’s one-on-one with the Michigan gun owner did the candidate no favors, but it did offer gun owners a stark reminder of what’s at stake in November.

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