Joe Biden Does Not Understand the Second Amendment

Townhall.com ^ | August 19, 2020 | Jacob Sullum

[Kaslin]

When it overturned California's 10-round magazine limit last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit emphasized what Americans commonly do when they exercise their constitutional right to armed self-defense. Joe Biden, by contrast, thinks the relevant question is how many shells Americans are allowed to have in their shotguns when they hunt migratory birds.

Those two approaches represent the difference between judges who take the Second Amendment seriously and politicians who only pay lip service to it. Biden's presidential campaign, which promises a raft of new gun restrictions while barely nodding toward the Constitution, shows the extent to which the right to keep and bear arms has become a partisan issue, a development that does not bode well for civil liberties.

The Biden campaign's website mentions the Second Amendment just once, saying, "It's within our grasp to end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited." Even that grudging acknowledgment is more than the Democratic Party's platform offers.

After promising to respect the Second Amendment in 2004, 2008, and 2012, the Democrats erased the constitutional provision from their 2016 platform, although they did mention "the rights of responsible gun owners." This year's platform omits that phrase as well.

"I respect the Second Amendment," Biden insisted last March while arguing with a Detroit autoworker about gun control. But the evidence he offered was not exactly reassuring.

When it overturned California's 10-round magazine limit last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit emphasized what Americans commonly do when they exercise their constitutional right to armed self-defense. Joe Biden, by contrast, thinks the relevant question is how many shells Americans are allowed to have in their shotguns when they hunt migratory birds.

Those two approaches represent the difference between judges who take the Second Amendment seriously and politicians who only pay lip service to it. Biden's presidential campaign, which promises a raft of new gun restrictions while barely nodding toward the Constitution, shows the extent to which the right to keep and bear arms has become a partisan issue, a development that does not bode well for civil liberties.

The Biden campaign's website mentions the Second Amendment just once, saying, "It's within our grasp to end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited." Even that grudging acknowledgment is more than the Democratic Party's platform offers.

After promising to respect the Second Amendment in 2004, 2008, and 2012, the Democrats erased the constitutional provision from their 2016 platform, although they did mention "the rights of responsible gun owners." This year's platform omits that phrase as well.

"I respect the Second Amendment," Biden insisted last March while arguing with a Detroit autoworker about gun control. But the evidence he offered was not exactly reassuring.

California argued that no one needs large-capacity magazines for self-defense. Millions of Americans disagree, and so do police officers, who were exempted from the state ban.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, whose 2019 decision blocking enforcement of California's law was upheld by the 9th Circuit last week, noted that the rationale for the ban hinged on a small subset of "extremely rare" crimes: cases where the need to switch magazines creates a "critical pause" during which a mass shooter's victims might overpower him or escape. For gun owners confronted in their homes or businesses by one or more violent criminals -- a situation much more common than mass shootings -- that "critical pause" can become a "lethal pause," Benitez observed.

In any case, the 9th Circuit concluded, the law's speculative benefits cannot possibly justify its sweeping breadth. "California's near-categorical ban of LCMs strikes at the core of the Second Amendment," it said.

Biden does not merely disagree with that analysis. The evidence suggests he does not even understand it.

[shelterguy]

You had me at Joe Biden Does Not Understand.........

[wny]

one never knows how many rounds is the minimum necessary until their attacker finally collapses to the ground

[2aProtectsTheRest]

Biden’s version of the Second Amendment (pre-dementia) has always been that farmers may have a shotgun and if the rest of us ask real nice, we can MAYBE own a single shot musket.

We don’t need to ask permission; it’s none of the government’s business. Self defense - and access to the tools used for self defense - is a human right. No law, no edict, no constitutional amendment can change it. Any government interfering with it is - by definition - infringing on basic human rights.

[HighSierra5]

The right to keep and bear..you know...the thing.

[null and void]

The government wants to disarm us after 244 yrs 'cuz they plan to do things we would shoot them for!

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

Let me repeat that:

The government wants to disarm us after 244 yrs 'cuz they plan to do things we would shoot them for!

Joe Biden understands (or at one time did understand) the the Second Amendment is the last firewall between us and tyranny.

He (or his handlers) want it removed.

[combat_boots]

...others, too. I didn’t know you could shoot at someone through a door, for example.

[combat_boots]

The Russians took Nazi weapons, melted them, and made them into the front steps to their new cathedral to their WWII soldiers.

[MacNaughton]

[al baby]

He doesn’t understand to unzip and dig it out and aim for the bowl anymore either

[Ozark Tom]

Someone lost their live warhead guided missile shipped via Amazon Air, and impounded at the Lakeland, Florida airport freight terminal. Can the buyer get a refund?

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/florida-airport-evacuated-after-huge-live-missile-found-accidentally-shipped-amazon

[PROCON]

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FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.

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[Rusty0604]

I think Joe Biden’s stand on 2A is where he is told to stand. We saw during the D debates that Harris is a gun grabber.

[Monkey Face]

That quote about selling firearms back to the government is downright scary in its honesty.

‘Face

1;o]

[rightwingcrazy]

Why, does he imagine, did the Founders see fit to write an Amendment about hunting muskets right after one that protects freedom of expression and worship? Was it a preciously guarded hobby?

[Monkey Face]

Don’t know how that 1 got there in from of my smiley, but it shouldn’t be there...

[Blood of Tyrants]

My tagline.

[umgud]

Antifa and BLM crowds should change everybody’s view on ammo capacity bans.

[RooRoobird20]

Joe doesn’t understand the correct way to put his Depends on.

He also doesn’t understand the year he was sworn in as VP and how many grandchildren he has.

[xrmusn]

Joe Biden does not understand ___________________!

Most any answer will complete the question/statement

Sorry to say it and I guess in some ways I can somewhat be held responsible, but we have certainly reach the low point in American sensibility when we elect the likes of JFK/LBJ (JFK was NOT a moral person), WJ Clinton, BH Obama, and our final choices from the LIBs this year ended up with E Warren (an American Indian wannabe), B Sanders, J Biden and his not moral running mate, and have such as N Pelosi, C Schumer, H Clinton etal for ‘major spokespeople’.

Sorry I didn’t mean to leave out any Rs and left out a whole lot of Ds but we are somewhat restricted to content.

Let me just Broadbrush and use an Old - but very effective sloga -

Kill em all, God will sort them out.
(Hypothetically, of course)

Were I ever to be called to a Congressional Hearing they would definitely be correct charging me with Contempt of Congress. AND that is before I have to ‘speak’ to them.