Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The big ideas former Vice President Joe Biden brought to the table after the shootings in Dayton and El Paso were an assault weapons ban (which didn’t work when it was last attempted) and a federal gun buyback program (which haven’t worked either). Mat Viser reports at The Washington Post:
Former vice president Joe Biden said Monday he would push for a federal gun buyback program to take more weapons off the streets, as one effort to contain the epidemic of mass shootings.
Biden also said that he would attempt to enhance background checks and reinstitute the assault weapons ban, which he helped push through in 1994 but was unable to reauthorize a decade later.
When asked about criticism that a future Biden administration would take away people’s guns, he responded, “Bingo! You’re right, if you have an assault weapon.”
He went on to say that previously owned guns would not be confiscated, but he emphasized a national gun buyback program and a hope that some weapons could be banned.
“The Second Amendment doesn’t say you can’t restrict the kinds of weapons people can own,” Biden said. “You can’t buy a bazooka. You can’t have a flamethrower.”
Maybe next Biden will encourage Americans to buy shotguns and randomly fire them into the air for self-defense.
