Joe Biden
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

One part of the 1994 crime bill that Biden definitely does not regret is the federal ban on semi-automatic guns that Congress described as “assault weapons,” which expired in 2004. Biden favors a new and supposedly improved version of that law, including a requirement that current owners of the targeted firearms either surrender them to the government or follow the same tax and registration requirements that apply to machine guns. During an argument with a Detroit autoworker in March, Biden suggested that the Second Amendment no more protects the right to own guns he does not like than the First Amendment protects the right to falsely cry “Fire!” in a crowded theater.

In a New York Times op-ed piece last year, Biden conceded that the 1994 “assault weapon” ban had no impact on the lethality of legal guns, because manufacturers could comply with the new restrictions “by making minor modifications to their products—modifications that leave them just as deadly.” But that is a problem shared by all such bans, since they draw lines based on features, such as folding stocks, barrel shrouds, and flash suppressors, that make little or no difference in the hands of criminals. The distinction that Biden perceives between guns with those features and functionally identical models without them is just as spurious as the distinction he once perceived between crack and cocaine powder.

As he did when confronting “the drug problem” in the 1980s and ’90s, Biden feels an overpowering urge to do something, whether or not that thing makes any sense. “There’s no excuse for inaction,” he tweeted after the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas. “We must act now,” he insisted after the 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach (which, like most such crimes, was committed with ordinary handguns rather than “assault weapons”). Such comments reflect the same sort of knee-jerk urgency that, by Biden’s account, “trapped an entire generation” because he did not bother to educate himself about matters on which he was legislating.

– Jacob Sullum in The Case Against Biden: Joe Biden’s Politics of Panic

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47 COMMENTS

  1. You really have to blame the American public for this never-ending urge to “do something.” Some people can’t resist surrendering their freedoms for a sense of security.

    To these people, they don’t care what the something is, as long as it makes them feel better. Does it matter to these people if the something solves the problem or make it worse? No. The politicians and bureaucrats just need to proclaim the something works.

    Sometimes, as typically with the economy, the best thing is to do nothing.

  2. A phrase I have always liked is, “Don’t just DO something, stand there!”

    It’s a reminder to take a pause and think; and to remember that to every complex problem there are myriad solutions that are simple, obvious, and wrong.

  3. Emotionally driven people always have to “do something.”
    It’s a major reason emotionally driven people tend to live lives of relative chaos and perpetual dependence.

  4. I’ve been seeing a ton of Biden ads lately. He’s promising free money for everyone except the rich, because “the rich will pay for it.” I heard the exact same thing from Obama, yet the rich got super rich under Obama (as in record setting), while the middle class got poorer. I was also promised $2,500 in savings on health insurance, but instead, I had to pay more. Biden never fixed anything. He’s been part of the problem for decades along with Chuck and Nancy, but the dems have people believing that THIS time it will be different.

    Everyone seems to forget that in every election season we’re always talking about some crazy foreign entanglement or threat, and how the candidate will deal with it. Why aren’t we talking about that now? Hmm…

    • The rich will never pay for it. They have the accountants and lawyers to find all the loop holes. They have the means to pass along any new taxes on them to us. they the funds to make big campaign donations to ensure that tax laws are written to accommodate them. Taxing the rich or making them pay their “fair share”, whatever that is, is a lie told to fools by the corrupt.

      • Biden’s entire economic plan revolves around the government forcing strict environmental regulations, thereby creating the mythical super high paying new jobs that everyone would supposedly benefit from, and the government handing out free money. Anyone with a lick of sense can see that is just pie in the sky.

        I don’t care if the rich get rich, as long as I have a shot at making a decent living too. Both d’s and r’s are responsible for the decades long stagnation of the middle class, but one party is really good at scapegoating. It should tell you something if the failed political establishment from both parties comes after a candidate.

      • One must first understand that successful businesses both large and small don’t pay Taxes. Any good business person considers taxes to be a business expense just like Labor, Materials, Utility and other Costs. In doing so they factor those expenses into their business model. Once this is done they then establish a price for their Product(s) that covers each one of these costs leaving a profit on the back end. Thus their customers pay Their Taxes. Unfortunately very few people know or understand this unless they are in business. Making them easy targets for the Tax the Rich Politicians who know better, but use the tactic to attain more Power.

        • “Unfortunately very few people know or understand this unless they are in business. Making them easy targets for the Tax the Rich Politicians who know better, but use the tactic to attain more Power.”

          That is so true. People are regularly fooled. That’s understandable, but to never learn from it is reprehensible.

        • Once this is done they then establish a price for their Product(s) that covers each one of these costs leaving a profit on the back end.

          Costs do not drive prices.
          Prices drive costs.

          A price is what customers are willing to pay. Unless demand is inelastic, fewer customers will buy if prices go up. If you want to sell your product, you must control your costs so you can make a profit selling at the price at which people will buy it.

        • Gosh, Alan Esworthy, it’s ALMOST as if you completely do not understand “price elasticity of demand”, or have the ability to distinguish between “demand pull” and “cost push” price increases. Which would lead one to believe you took a mediocre college Econ course, from a Leftist professor.

          “Price elasticity of demand” is an incredibly complex subject – it is situational, specific-market driven, highly dependent on alternatives and new options, price-induced shift of consumer options, market-driven moves to alternate supply sources or components, etc.

          But you do you . . . maybe you can convince someone that you are the new Ludwig von Mises or Friedrich Hayek . . . or even Milton Friedman. Unfortunately, I will not be among your fanbois . . . I actually studied Economics. It really IS ‘rocket surgery’. Most who claim to “know” what the markets will do?

          How come they ain’t rich???

          But have fun, theory-boy. It will be a hoot to sit back and watch you make an @$$ of yourself.

        • The difference between actually running a business and being taught about business can be explained in AE’s attempt at a retort. It is a perfect example of someone whose recently got it’s edumenaction most likely from a Liberal prof. who spouts Ideology over Truth and has never owned a business.

      • You need to keep that in mind the next time you go out and buy a smart phone. Have you ever stopped to consider HOW Zuckerberg got so rich? Or any number of others?

      • Lots of the rich get most of the free money already too.Subsidies, interest free loans, restraints on the their competition, etc. and Biden (and everyone else including Trump) helped establish those payouts too. It is already a storm of free money.

      • You know who actually did mostly succeed in “making the rich pay for it”? Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That’s one of the major reasons why the Great Depression was so great.

  5. Get rid if the college educated idiot class in this country and things will change….
    These weaklings and homos and SJW scum have gamed the system to protect the weak and stupid to allow themselves to be untouchable…
    These people are who need to pay hell first in CW2…
    Then AMERICANS can start to heal itself with REAL MEN running the country…
    LOOK AROUND YOU YOU IDIOT…. IT’S PRETTY EASY TO UNDERSTAND HOW EVERYTHING GOT SO FKD UP TO BEGIN WITH…..

    WOMENS LIB, SJW ARE THE DISGUSTING COLLEGE EDUCATED CLASS IN THIS COUNTRY….. RIGHT THERE IS THE ROOT PROBLEM…. ELIMINATE THE ROOT PROBLEM TO START THE HEALING PROCESS…..

    • By george you’re a SHOUTING piss poor example for a George Washington. Fact is you fit the mold of a pos who had some not so gentlemanly things to say to me last week. I want you to know george if that is you then unfortunately you are on my sht list and that’s not a safe place to be little man. Now get off your behind, put your empty blabber mouth beer cans in the trash, mow the grass, wash my cars and then gfy.

      • ” I want you to know george if that is you then unfortunately you are on my sht list and that’s not a safe place to be little man.”

        Am I on your shit list, Deborah?

    • I thought SJW meant semi jacketed wadcutter? Now I hear reference to colleges? This must be the new smart bullets that function in smart gunms

  6. der fuhrer mini mike bloomberg poured a lot of money into Jim Crow Gun Control joe biden’s campaign. So der furhrer expects something for his money and hearing joe biden talk about Gun Control is sweet music to der fuhrer’s ears.
    With his chin high and right arm extended Jim Crow Gun Control joe biden sends hugs and kisses to the der fuhrer mini mike bloomberg. And always best wishes to der fuhrer’s armed SS security guards.
    Jim Crow Gun Control joe biden and der fuhrer mini mike bloomberg are always planning, always scheming for the glorious day when their storm troopers knock down doors and beat into submission America’s noncomplying gun owning misfits.

  7. Yes, we must do something.

    We need to slap the hysterical Nancies, a good old fashioned Patton slap of love.

    We need to hunt down those who prey on society, we must understand we are out first line of defense.

    We must protect the most vulnerable people in our lives , which are the the young, elderly and those who are unable to protect themselves.

    They know the AWB had no affect on crime, because those weapons were not responsible for the crime. Individuals who use whatever tools they have are responsible for crime. The unintended side effects of the AWB, for them, is it created a demand for these weapons. Americans decided if they were told they could not have something, it must be something they probably need. So Americans being Americans went in force and procured all manner of things the political class didn’t want us to have.

    They have yet learned that trying to dissuade Americans from thier freedom is like herding cats. And this will continue to frustrate them to no end.

    • Crime has to be seen as financial leakage, where money is being siphoned off to unproductive ends. Be it street robbery or Mafia controlled sectors.

  8. Well, Everyone though ANTIFA/BLM were a problem rioting in cities! Try disarming millions of very angry 😠 voters and taxpayer’s who’s constitutional rights would be absolutely infringed! Law abiding U.S. citizens who would be criminalized by a tyrannical government! My guess, a full out Civil War! It would my Egypt, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and others look like Beach Blanket Bingo! I guarantee that these self-appointed potentates and authoritarians would Rue the day they made that decision to undermine the Constitution of the United States of America! In violation of our Bill of Rights!

    • “Try disarming millions of very angry 😠 voters and taxpayer’s who’s constitutional rights would be absolutely infringed!”

      You are underestimating the ability of the average American to sell out.

      • “A war might close the factory, if the factory closes how to make the payments on the house, car, all my stuff , taking the boat to the lake, going big game hunting? Screw that, I lose that, and why, why I just wouldn’t have any freedom at all.”

  11. Biden: “Facts! Facts? We doan need no stinkin’ facts…we have feelz.”*

    *the DNC distributes the mythical on a daily basis…this alleged quote falls within the same realm.

    Is it just me or has Biden slumped since the debate…I guess the cognitive enhancing drugs he was given prior to the debate have worn off…that rebound crash is a bitch.

    • You could see him fading as the debate wore on. Wallace rescued him multiple times. Twice Wallace had to remind Biden what they were talking about. Wallace literally told Biden the specifics of Biden’s plan for him. One time Biden was wondering off into left field, and Wallace interrupted him and moved onto something else.

    • “Breaking News: wHitler loses control in Michigan.”

      Not so fast –

      “It’s still too early for Michiganders to start celebrating. Whitmer seems to have enjoyed her flirtation with totalitarian power and is not prepared to give it up:

      Whitmer said Friday she “vehemently” disagreed with the court’s ruling, which she said made Michigan an “outlier” among the majority of states that have emergency orders in place.

      The governor said that even after the Supreme Court ruling takes effect, her directives will remain in place through “alternative sources of authority.”

      https://www.zerohedge.com/political/michigan-supreme-court-strikes-down-gov-whitmers-nanny-state-edicts

  15. America can’t not afford a president who tells Putin he’s full of shit or breaks down into tears because he didn’t know what Putin meant when he said “Obrey orto”

  16. Even falsely shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater is in fact free speech, q.v. Brandenburg v. Ohio.

    So if Biden is so cavalier about 1A, why should anyone trust him with the rest of the BoR?

  17. First thing dems do if they seize control of govt will be forcibly confiscate privately owned guns. Can’t have armed dogs with guns if we don’t like the dog food..can we?

    • I never threaten but there are two gunms in my collection that I am willing to kill for if someone tried to take them.

  18. Using a pic of the masked Biden? The guy might actually make it into office all because he wore those masks and denounces white supremacy.

    Trump is having trouble breathing, he had to be given oxygen. Then when his fever got high and wouldn’t go down, they flew him to the hospital to get him on all kinds of experimental drugs to keep him alive.

    Republicans messed up big. They are all starting to test positive for the disease. They went to a celebration for the new nominee of the supreme court, this is where they spread the virus and got sick because they didn’t wear a mask. Amy Barrett already had the virus before, so she wasn’t worried.

    And people thought Biden was the one going to drop dead.

    If only Republicans didn’t force the nomination they wouldn’t have went to that get together where the virus got them. Now it’s going to be hard to stop gun control and the blue wave.

    I’m surprised TAG hasn’t written an article about the current situation and what could happen. What if Pence becomes president and they lose the senate? What if they lose everything in a blue wave?

  19. STOP WITH THE FEAR MONGERING.

    My dad is 83 and I’m 57 and nobody had taken our guns but we live in Texas so if you complain about states like Comifornia with all the restrictions the move……..

  20. Biden advocates we tax the rich for free stuff. He advocates a personal rate of 39.6%. His 2019 income was $19 million, and he paid $300,000 in taxes. My calculator says that is 1.5%, and he owes us another $7.224 million before he has paid his fair share ACCORDING TO HIM! Leaving aside the obvious question of how in hell he got so rich after a life spent totally in elected office, without a real job, ever, if he thinks his income should require a tax payment of 7.5 million dollars, then why didn’t he pay it? All you have to do is write the check.

  21. How many are going to surrender to Bidens Communist government gun ban ? I suspect a great many once the Biden communist laws become effective and the penalties known. Of course Bidens gun grab will be challenged with many lawsuits. But while the challenges will work their way thru the courts the law will stand . We may have as little as 90 days to conform, whether its to register our weapons and pay the NFA tax, turn them in to a federal collection depot, or decide to resist and see what happens. We dont know what the penalty will be for non compliance, but suspect it wont be a traffic ticket. I suspect penalties will be severe, very severe. Communists are known for there shoot first behavior of law enforcement. That alone will influence many gun owners to surrender their arms, after all they have families to think about, and a business, and assets they will lose should they resist.

    On the other hand some Americans might develop a backbone and decide to take a stand against the Biden communist government. And from there an anti communist revolution will grow.
    Or will the communists have a majority of Americans in favor of such a government, a country without a Bill of Rights, and a country run by tyrants.

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