On Monday, the White House released a statement about the shooting at the University of Virginia in which three members of the school’s football team were killed. The statement itself isn’t all that unusual, but what really stood out to me was the fact that Biden tried to tie this shooting to his repeated calls for a ban on semi-automatic rifles, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declaring that “[w]e need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets. House Democrats acted, and the Senate should follow.”

At the time, police hadn’t said what kind of weapon the shooter used in the Sunday night attack, but there had been no indications that a rifle was involved. Based on the current charges the suspect is facing, however, it appears that he was in possession of a pistol, not a rifle, when the shots were fired.

22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is currently being held in the Henrico County Jail on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Jones is a current UVA student and former UVA football player who grew up in the Richmond area. He was arrested about 12 hours after the shooting in eastern Henrico – not far from where he grew up.

At a press conference Monday, UVA Police Chief Timothy Longo revealed that someone had reported jones for allegedly making a comment about having a gun to the university’s threat assessment team, just two months ago.

Ultimately, no weapon was found.

It was then discovered that Jones had a prior criminal incident from February of 2021, over a concealed weapons violation.

This isn’t the first time that the White House has tried to pin the blame for a crime on a gun that wasn’t even used. Last month, after a 15-year old in North Carolina used a shotgun and a pistol in an attack in a Raleigh neighborhood, the White House’s initial statement called for… a ban on so-called assault weapons.

“Enough. We’ve grieved and prayed with too many families who have had to bear the terrible burden of these mass shootings. Too many families have had spouses, parents, and children taken from them forever,” Biden said.

“For the lives we’ve lost and the lives we can save, I took historic action to stop gun violence in our nation, including signing the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years. But we must do more. We must pass an assault weapons ban,” Biden continued. “The American people support this commonsense action to get weapons of war off our streets. House Democrats have already passed it. The Senate should do the same. Send it to my desk and I’ll sign it.”

This isn’t just a case of Biden or his press team jumping the gun (so to speak) and putting out statements before all of the facts are known. This is about the White House trying to craft a narrative about the evils of modern sporting rifles and gin up support for banning them by associating black rifles with every high-profile crime involving a gun.

If you’re a Second Amendment supporter you’re probably already aware of the fact that, according to the FBI, fists and feet are more common murder weapons than rifles of any kind. Banning so-called assault weapons is not only unconstitutional, given that they’re in common use for a variety of lawful purposes, it’s an absolutely idiotic way to combat violent crime.

For anti-gun Democrats, however, it’s their top priority, and Biden’s okay with gaslighting the American public if it helps Team Blue get an “assault weapons” ban to his desk. They don’t wait for the facts, because they might contradict the preferred narrative. They don’t inform voters, but inflame them instead. And we all know that they’re going to continue to mislead the public in pursuit of gun control’s Holy Grail; the ban and confiscation of tens of millions of firearms currently in the hands of peaceable gun owners.