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By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
When President Joe Biden tried to exploit the attempted assassination of rival and former President Donald Trump last weekend in Pennsylvania to call yet again for a ban on so-called “assault rifles,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was quick to respond.
Biden was speaking to the NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas when he declared it is “time to outlaw” modern semiautomatic rifles because of the Trump shooting. The former president suffered a minor wound to his right ear, miraculously escaping far more serious injury by perhaps no more than an inch.
The investigation into how a 20-year-old would-be assassin was able to get on a rooftop only 130 yards away from where Trump was speaking, and have a direct line-of-fire between himself and the former president, is still under investigation.
Trump subsequently attended the Republican National Convention with a bandaged ear, to triumphantly accept the party nomination for president this year.
When Biden called for the ban on semiautomatic rifles, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb wasted no time, demanding to know, “Is he personally going to go door-to-door and confiscate peoples’ firearms? By some estimates, Americans own more than 22 million modern semi-auto rifles. That’s an awful lot of doors to be knocking on.”
There was no response from the White House, which hardly surprised Gottlieb.
“Joe Biden wants to ban guns like the AR-15 used in the attack on Mr. Trump,” the CCRKBA chairman observed. “But what if the would-be assassin had used a bolt-action hunting rifle with a scope? Would Biden want to ban them, too?”
Gottlieb’s point was clear: “It is not the inanimate object that kills people, it is the person pulling the trigger. But Biden, and other anti-gunners, always want to ban guns without exacting harsh punishment for the people who misuse them. They’d rather blame the firearm than the criminal.”
This seems to be the automatic one-size-fits-all solution offered by anti-gunners in the wake of any tragedy. Instead of calling for swift and just punishment of the perpetrators, the gun prohibition movement invariably wants to restrict everyone’s Second Amendment rights.
“This just demonstrates the lack of common sense which seems to be the trademark of the Biden administration,” Gottlieb commented in a statement to the media. “It proves we need someone in the White House who understands how to solve problems rather than running in circles. Joe Biden seems incapable of crafting real solutions to violent crime, and he is stuck on gun bans like a broken record. When the only tool in your box is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
Biden has been waging a war on guns and the Second Amendment since he first came to Washington, D.C. some 50 years ago, Gottlieb recalled. He has championed every gun control proposal on Capitol Hill, invariably taking credit whenever any of them passed. He has frequently bragged about passing the 1994 “assault weapons” ban and “defeating the gun lobby.”
“Joe Biden has been relentless in his effort to have a gun ban as part of his legacy,” Gottlieb said. “He will not be happy until he can brag about banning a whole class of firearms, rather than say he locked up lots of criminals and crazy people. He’s not interested in eradicating crime, but only in erasing the Second Amendment.”