While speaking to reporters outside the White House on Monday, President Biden suggested restrictions on “high caliber” weapons and ammunition, which is how the he classified handguns. The president said there is “no rational basis” for owning 9mm handguns, which are America’s most popular firearm.
Biden called for strict gun control outside the White House after returning from a trip to a New York trauma center where doctors showed him x-rays of gunshot victims.
“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life,” Biden said. “A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.
“So the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of thinking about self-protection, hunting,” the president went on.
Joe Biden suggests he wants to ban “high caliber” 9mm handguns.
“There’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection.” pic.twitter.com/lPITAN5kEU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 30, 2022
Biden later appeared to rule out executive action on handguns and other firearms. “I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t, you know, change the background checks. I can’t do that,” Biden said.
He then pointed to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as a “sensible Republican” who can assist Democrats with their gun control agenda.
“I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it,” he said. “At least, that’s my hope and prayer.”
“I think Senator McConnell is a rational Republican. I think Cornyn is as well,” he added. “I think there’s a recognition in their part that they — we can’t continue like this. We can’t do this.”
Biden has called for action on handguns and 9mm bullets in the past.
Biden said he wanted to ban handguns during a Presidential forum last July. “Crime is down, gun violence and murder rates are up. Guns,” Biden falsely claimed. “I’m the only guy that ever got passed legislation, when I was a Senator, that made sure we eliminated assault weapons. The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire, 20, 30, 40, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a 9mm pistol or a rifle, is ridiculous.”
“I’m pushing to eliminate the sale of those things,” Biden continued.
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President Biden says he wants to ban handguns.
House Republicans will NEVER allow this to happen the #SecondAmendment is a RIGHT. pic.twitter.com/rOq6wecQES
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) July 22, 2021
Biden’s comments came fewer than 48 hours after Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “assault weapons” ban after attending a funeral for Buffalo shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, 86. “You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed?” Harris said Saturday. “It was designed for a specific purpose – to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society.”
President Biden has blamed the Uvalde massacre on “the gun lobby” and called for a ban on “assault weapons”, a term used by Democrats to describe essentially all semi-automatic rifles.