During a Labor Day campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden suggested banning “magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them” as a solution to the problem of gun violence.
“The idea that we don’t have elimination of assault type weapons, magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them – it’s absolutely mindless,” Biden told assembled reporters.
As several commenters and pundits pointed out on Twitter, banning magazines that can hold more than one bullet would essentially outlaw all guns except those that use single-shot magazines, such as muskets and flint-lock pistols.
“It’s no violation of the Second Amendment. It’s just a bow of special interests of the gun manufactures and the NRA,” he added.
Biden criticized a number of new laws in Texas designed to ease restrictions on firearms.
“With all due respect for the governor of Texas — on the very day you see a mass shooting and we’re talking about loosening access to have guns, being able to take them places of worship, store them in schools. And it’s absolutely irrational,” he said.
The laws, which went into effect on Sunday, passed in the 86th Texas Legislature in August,CNN and other outlets reported. On Saturday, a shooter killed seven people and wounded 22 others in a rampage in Odessa and Midland.
The former vice president also slammed President Donald Trump, accusing him of failing to address the rash of mass shootings in America.
“The president has no intestinal fortitude to deal with this,” he said. “He knows better. His instinct was to say ‘yeah, we’re going to do something on background checks.’ What’s he doing?”
Joe Biden, gaffe machine
The gaffe-prone Biden was ridiculed widely by pro-gun commenters on social media for his magazine ban remarks.
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Meanwhile, fellow 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson pushed a similarly radical proposal in a Monday op-ed for The Washington Post by suggesting a ban on bullets.
Williamson and Biden’s gun violence solutions are likely to irritate pro-gun advocates frustrated by what they perceive as their opponents’ ignorance of how firearms actually work. Liberal discomfort and unfamiliarity with guns leads to hysteria and misinformation, they argue.
*see full story by Pluralist