President Joe Biden said during a press conference about soaring crime rates on Wednesday that Americans who buy firearms to defend against a tyrannical government would need to own “F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons” to go up against the government.
“The Second Amendment from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own,” Biden said. “You couldn’t buy a cannon. [Those who] say the blood of the, the blood of patriots, you know, and all this stuff about how we’re going to have to move against the government.”
“Well, the tree of liberty is not [watered with] the blood of patriots, what’s happened is that there never been, if you want, if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons,” Biden continued. “The point is that there’s always been the ability to limit, rationally limit, the type of weapon that can be owned, and who can own it.”
WATCH:
BIDEN: You’ll need F-15’s and nuclear weapons to take on the government pic.twitter.com/dAZ0yeaq2y
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 23, 2021
National Review senior writer David Harsanyi, who is an expert on the Second Amendment, previously pushed back on a nearly identical claim that Biden made about how there have always been limits on the types of weapons that people can own.
Harsanyi wrote:
I can’t even begin to imagine what rickety basis there is for making such a claim. I mean, I wrote a book on the history of American guns, and never once did I run across any law that restricted Americans from owning any weapons they desired (unless we’re talking about blacks or Indians; because most gun restrictions in U.S. history have been employed to unarm the people who need weapons most). The idea of the federal government conducting any kind [of] domestic “gun policy” whatsoever would have been a completely alien concept to anyone before the 1930s. Even then, no specific types of guns were banned from use. It wasn’t really until 1986 that that fully automatic guns were effectively banned by the federal government.
Biden made the remarks during a press conference about what his administration was doing about the skyrocketing crime rates that are unfolding on his watch across the country.
“This is a political red herring aimed at hiding the real and abysmal failures of the Biden administration,” National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Amy Hunter told Fox News. “Crime rates are high because of the efforts to defund the police and a failure to prosecute career criminals. The simple fact is strict enforcement of existing laws – including gun laws – coupled with support of law enforcement and prosecutors to do their jobs would result in a dramatic decrease in crime. But, the president would rather play politics than make Americans safer.”
This article has been expanded after publication to include additional information.