Sometimes, a single moment on the campaign trail can tell you a lot about a candidate.
Likely 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden recently had such a moment when he attacked one voter for his earnest Second Amendment concerns. The former vice president’s condescending and belligerent tone exposed his radical anti-gun agenda.
When a Detroit voter questioned the former vice president and accused him of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment right,” Biden responded harshly, saying, “You’re full of shit,” and even threatened to slap the voter.
The candidate went on to rant incoherently about banning “AR-14s,” messing up the name for the commonly used semi-automatic rifle the AR-15, and “machine guns,” which are already illegal. Biden’s campaign trail meltdown is just another reminder that while he is less extreme than socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he’s solidly liberal on most issues — in fact, on the issue of gun control, Biden is downright radical.
Just look at who Biden is deciding to appoint to his team.
Biden recently announced that former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who has endorsed him, would be his point man if elected president on gun control. Yes, that’s the same O’Rourke who, during his stint as a failed presidential candidate, said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47” and endorsed outright gun confiscation.
It’s worth pointing out that Biden’s official campaign platform endorses a ban on so-called assault weapons, backs red flag laws, bans online gun sales, limits gun purchases to one per month, and includes a gun buyback. (His campaign website implies that this buyback is voluntary/optional, but if O’Rourke is really going to be in charge, it’s not hard to imagine that this will turn into a de facto mandatory gun confiscation regime.)
The flaws plaguing these proposals are obvious. There was an “assault weapons” ban in place from 1994 to 2004. Experts almost unanimously agree it was ineffective.
Similarly, red flag laws, while promising in concept, in practice pose serious concerns about whether people will have their constitutional right to gun ownership stripped without adequate due process protections. Meanwhile, those who would comply with a government gun buyback are exactly those law-abiding citizens whose disarming does not improve public safety.
Biden’s anti-gun animus clearly extends beyond his rhetoric and campaign trail behavior. While the former vice president may be running on offering America a nonsocialist, centrist Trump alternative, when it comes to the Second Amendment, voters shouldn’t mistake Biden for anything other than the true radical that he is.
