Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Joe Biden said there is no need for 9mm pistols, calling them “high-caliber weapons,” he also went on to falsely claim the Second Amendment doesn’t include Americans’ right to own cannons.
The comments come after Biden visited site of last week’s mass shooting. During his comments, he said doctors in a New York trauma hospital 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. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”
“The 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.” – President Joe Biden
Will the fact checkers be flagging his comment as misinformation? pic.twitter.com/fFPPf7Cv44
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) May 30, 2022
The President then went on to claim, “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.”
Regarding his power to enact changes such as outlawing particular types actions, the Executive Branch is able to take he said, “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 went on to say “the Second Amendment, was never absolute.” He also said, “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons.” This claim was stated as false by PolitiFact.
Vice President Harris backed up the President’s claims, saying on Saturday, “You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed? 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.”
