Democrat President Joe Biden renewed his push to ban semi-automatic long guns in a Monday speech that focused on what his administration is doing to crack down on Second Amendment rights.
“We need Congress to pass universal background checks, universal background checks, and I know it’s controversial but I got it done once, ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines,” Biden shouted.
Biden then suggested that people do not need what he claims are high-capacity magazines because deer do not wear “Kevlar vests.”
While announcing new actions to fight gun crime, President Biden:
• calls on Congress to pass universal background checks and to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines
• makes a pretty funny joke about deer hunting
• shouts that assault weapons are a "weapon of war" pic.twitter.com/hOEfTFe7MQ— The Recount (@therecount) April 11, 2022
The event was primarily focused on the administration issuing a final rule to curb the proliferation of so-called “ghost guns” which are privately made firearms that do not have a serial number and thus do not require a background check to obtain key components needed to build the firearm.
The administration said in a statement:
This final rule bans the business of manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, such as unserialized “buy build shoot” kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home. This rule clarifies that these kits qualify as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act, and that commercial manufacturers of such kits must therefore become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver, and commercial sellers of these kits must become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale – just like they have to do with other commercially-made firearms.
The final rule will also help turn some ghost guns already in circulation into serialized firearms. Through this rule, the Justice Department is requiring federally licensed dealers and gunsmiths taking any unserialized firearm into inventory to serialize that weapon. For example, if an individual builds a firearm at home and then sells it to a pawn broker or another federally licensed dealer, that dealer must put a serial number on the weapon before selling it to a customer. This requirement will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.
Biden also announced that he was nominating Steve Dettelbach to serve as Director of ATF after Biden’s last nominee, David Chipman, failed to garner enough support in the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats, to be confirmed to the position.
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This report has been updated to include additional information.