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Biden Suggests Pistol Ban During CNN Town Hall

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News Desk

Updated on July 23, 2021

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President Joe Biden mentioned a “push to eliminate” 9mm pistols with more ammo capacity than the left permits at his CNN town hall on Wednesday night.

The President was asked what the federal government can do to “address” gun violence.

“I’m the only guy that ever got passed legislation, when I was a senator, to make sure we eliminated assault weapons. The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether — whether it’s a .9 millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous,” he said, adding: “I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things.”

Until recently, Biden has campaigned for legislation banning “assault weapons” and directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to pursue regulatory action against AR-pistols with stabilizer braces.

Since every handgun ‘can’ discharge hundreds of rounds, Biden appeared to be referring to different sizes of magazines.

Biden’s gun control proposal does not include a ban on handguns, but it does include a restriction on “high-capacity” magazines. Given that state-level “high-capacity” magazine restrictions prohibit anything with more than 10 rounds, it’s probable that if given the chance, Biden will push for a national ban.

According to Breitbart News, the Department of Justice attempted to bring specific AR-pistols under the National Firearms Act on June 7, 2021. Those AR-pistols, on the other hand, are chambered in 5.56 or.223, not 9mm. Biden’s suggestion of regulating 9mm handguns opens the door to regulating the widely used Glock, Heckler & Koch, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Kahr, Taurus, and Springfield Armory pistols, among others.

In April, the Biden-Harris administration indicated that, if necessary, it will use executive order to press for further gun regulations and other measures linked to gun violence.

“President Biden is reiterating his call for Congress to pass legislation to reduce gun violence.”

“Last month, a bipartisan coalition in the House passed two bills to close loopholes in the gun background check system,” the statement read. “Congress should close those loopholes and go further, including by closing ‘boyfriend’ and stalking loopholes that currently allow people found by the courts to be abusers to possess firearms, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and investing in evidence-based community violence interventions.” The White House read at a time.

“Congress should also pass an appropriate national ‘red flag’ law, as well as legislation incentivizing states to pass ‘red flag’ laws of their own,” the statement continued.

The president’s suggestion of a handgun ban wasn’t his first problematic gun-related remark. To demonstrate that guns are to blame for the increase in murders over the last year, he established a difference between “crime” and “gun violence” at the start of his remarks on weapons.

Whether we’re talking about 9mm handguns or rifles, the concept that limiting magazine capacity on pistols or rifles will reduce violence is absurd. Even compared to Biden’s earlier gun-banning days, conflating handguns with “assault weapons” is a significant shift in policy. It’s also worth noting that Biden’s ten-year ban on arbitrary long-barrel weapons models had no effect on violent crime, which had already begun to drop before the ban and continued to decline after it expired.

People who have not been convicted of any crime might have their weapons taken away under so-called “red flag” regulations, which allow law authorities to seize firearms from them without going through the whole legal process.