By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A look back at President Joe Biden’s remarks on the floor of the Senate in 1985 reveals the aging Delaware Democrat has flip-flopped on guns and the Second Amendment to such a degree that he risks further solidifying his reputation for hypocrisy when it comes to regulating firearms.
As noted in a recent Fact Check article in USA Today, then-Sen. Biden was debating the merits of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act when he declared, “During my twelve-and-a-half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime.”
How times have changed. Nowadays, Biden is using the bully pulpit of the presidency to push a gun control agenda that includes a ban on the most popular rifle in America today, mandate sweeping background check legislation—which many believe will lead to back-door registration—and so-called “safe storage” legislation which may fail constitutional scrutiny as a result of the 2008 Supreme Court ruling in the Heller case.
Biden’s 1985 remarks also included this observation: “I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, nontraceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control. In my opinion a national register or ban of handguns would be impossible to carry out and may not result in reductions in crime.”
According to the USA Today article, “Biden voted against amendments that would have enacted a 14-day waiting period for handgun sales and removed a provision requiring notification before routine compliance inspections of firearm dealers and manufacturers.”
But over the past four decades, Biden’s position on guns has shifted dramatically. In his July 4 statement, Biden said, “It is within our power to once again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns, to end gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and to enact universal background checks. I urge other states to follow Illinois’ lead, and continue to call upon Republican lawmakers in Congress to come to the table on meaningful, commonsense reforms that the American people support.”
USA Today noted that when it contacted the White House on June 13, spokesperson Chris Meagher referred the publication to a statement it gave to NBC News in 2019. At the time, former spokesperson Bill Russo asserted Biden’s comment in 1986 was cherry-picked and “out of context.”
