The firearms community has taken notice that President Joe Biden waited until late in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening to renew his demand for a ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
It brought a standing ovation from Democrats, reinforcing the notion that they are the party of gun prohibition, while Republicans sat silently.
A perennial anti-gunner, Biden kept his comments on gun control brief, perhaps hoping to avoid one of his infamous gaffes about the Second Amendment and what it historically allowed, or didn’t allow, for which he has previously been skewered by Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler.
“Ban assault weapons now. Ban them now, once and for all,” he demanded.
But even in that moment of attempted drama, Biden got it wrong. He had been talking about a mass shooting in Los Angeles du ring a Lunar New Year celebration in which the murder weapon was a pistol, not a semiautomatic rifle. The gun was reportedly equipped with a magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds, which is already banned by California state law.
It was essentially another Biden blunder about guns.
The remainder of Biden’s speech dealt with other issues. It was a sometimes raucous 75 minutes, as described by Politico, during which some Republicans jeered at the president’s remarks. There were shouts calling him a “liar” and at least one obscenity, reported by Politico.
Biden’s almost total avoidance of the gun issue was something of a first, and it happened just days after the Second Amendment Foundation launched its 2023 advertising effort calling attention to the president’s 2021 acknowledgement he wants to ban not only semiautomatic rifles, but also 9mm pistols. The timing was uncanny, and SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb noted the advertisement actually aired following Biden’s speech.
With Republicans now controlling the U.S. House, Biden’s gun prohibition agenda is essentially dead. It is highly unlikely any serious gun control legislation will make it out of the House, and anything passed by the Senate will probably be dead on arrival.
The Republican response, delivered by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, was powerful and drew stark distinctions between her and the president, and between Republicans and Democrats.
“At 40, I’m the youngest governor in the country,” she noted. “At 80, he’s the oldest president in American history. I’m the first woman to lead my state. He’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”
“The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she added a moment later. “The choice is between normal or crazy.”
Sanders did not specifically respond to Biden’s call for a gun ban.
