Joe Biden

8 posts

Biden Falls Back on the Classics

We’re living in the late 1970s again. Inflation is on the rise, gasoline prices are spiking, and we’re seeing a dramatic rise in violent crime. We have a President who has no ideas worth bringing to the table, so he’s falling back on the old standby: gun control.

In remarks made today, he called for a reinstatement of the so-called “assault weapons” ban and crackdowns on gun dealers. Neither of these things will have an impact on violent crime, and the worst part is, he knows it.

His first claim is this:

For folks at home, here’s what you need to know: I’ve been at this a long time and there are things we know that work that reduce gun violence and violent crime, and things that we don’t know about. But things we know about: Background checks for purchasing a firearm are important; a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

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Civil Rights

First Shot Across the Bow

On Sunday, the White House released a statement by President Biden calling for new gun-control laws. Predictably, he claims this will “end our epidemic of gun violence.” There is no such epidemic. Homicides with firearms are the lowest they’ve been since the early 1990s.

The actual proposal?

(…) requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.

None of these measures has ever been shown to have any effect on homicide. None of these measures would have ameliorated the tragedy at Parkland, which he seeks to exploit here. In fact, he personally admitted that just a few years ago.

So, I’m confused. No, really. The thing is, this guy traditionally gets stuff done on gun control. He wrote the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which we know as the “assault weapons ban.”

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Civil Rights

It’s Biden Time

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Let’s just call it at this point. Joe Biden is the next President. It doesn’t matter that only 98.4% of precincts in Nevada have reported in. It doesn’t matter that someone claims a couple hundred votes got misplaced somewhere. There’s no feasible path to 270 electoral votes for Donald Trump.

Do some yelling if it helps. Deep breath. In. Out. Now, jazz hands. All better? Good.

Now let’s look at what it all means. First, this wasn’t a landslide for Biden by any definition. It looks like six million more people voted for Trump than did so in 2016. He can’t dismiss that.

Second, Republicans are keeping control of the Senate. Despite the promises (and several hundred million dollars in spending), Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins all held their seats without breaking a sweat.

Third, Democrats still control the House, but Republicans gained more seats than expected. That number will increase in the 2022 midterms.

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Civil Rights

Gun Control: the Current Situation

Gun control advocates have long been coy about their actual agenda. They’ve given the public platitudes about “compromise” and “reasonable regulation,” and they’ve taken pains to assure us that “nobody’s coming for your guns.” Then Beto O’Rourke went and spilled the beans on live television. He wasn’t jumping the gun. He was just dumb enough to say it out loud.

In doing so, he conveniently left the door open for Joe Biden to step in with his own plan, which he’s claiming to be moderate in comparison. It’s not. Under the Biden scheme, anyone owning an “assault weapon” will have two choices: sell it back to the government or register it.

I’m not clear how I can sell something back to the government when they never owned it in the first place. I can guarantee that any such “buyback” will only offer a fraction of most weapons’ value, which raises certain 5th Amendment concerns.

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Civil Rights

Here Comes Biden

It’s been reasonable to suspect he’ll run for the Presidency, and that now appears to be confirmed. He’s run twice before. This time, he’s been Vice President for 8 years.

If he does, Clinton is done. Biden doesn’t have any major scandals or suspicion to overcome. He’s been in politics for nearly four decades, and everybody knows him. He’s got the lock on New England and he’ll sweep the labor unions. He’s safe, charismatic, and connected. He doesn’t even really have to campaign for it.

Clinton will fall by the wayside. Bernie Sanders isn’t going to happen. The party is going to nominate Biden in the primaries.

We can make all the jokes we want about Biden’s gaffes. The fact is, this guy gets stuff done on gun control. He wrote the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which we know as the “assault weapons ban.” Though the Act had a whole slew of provisions, Biden made it clear that it was about “guns, guns, guns.”

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Civil Rights

Joe Biden on Self Defense

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Joe Biden gave us this sage advice on self-defense while doing a talk for Parents magazine:

We live in an area that’s wooded and secluded. I said, Jill [his wife], if there’s ever a problem just walk out on the balcony here … put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house. I promise you whoever’s coming in is not gonna…

He trailed off after that and rambled that the AR-15 was more difficult to aim and use. He closed by imploring the audience in hushed tones to “buy a shotgun.”

OK, let’s round up the number of things wrong with that statement.

Civil Rights

Yo Joe!

So I’m having a little trouble following Joe Biden’s logic. He’s the President’s point man on gun control legislation, and he’s the author of the original Assault Weapons Ban. He should at least stick to the program when he’s talking to his own base, but he let this chestnut slip on Thursday:

Nothing we are going to do is fundamentally going to alter or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting or guarantee that we will bring gun deaths down.

Well Joe, I already know that. So why are you wasting our time with this?

Civil Rights

The Big Stupid, Part II

I would think the Democrats are smart enough to leave gun control alone by now. I’d think that, but apparently, I’d be wrong. They released their 2012 platform [pdf] today, and it includes this happy little chestnut:

We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans’ Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements — like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole — so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.

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