How many times does Biden have to say that he wants to ban handguns before people believe him?
You know, the future is cut short by a man with a stolen Glock with 40 rounds — a magazine with 40 rounds. And it’s really a weapon of war.
One of the things I was proudest of years ago, when I was in the Senate — I was able to get these weapons and the size of magazines outlawed. That got changed. It got overruled. But I don’t see any rationale to why there should be such a weapon able to be purchased. It doesn’t violate anybody’s Second Amendment rights to deny that.
Last July, Biden made a similar statement at a CNN Townhall.
Biden: “Actually, crime is down; gun violence and murder rates are up. Guns. I’m the only guy that ever got passed legislation when I was a senator, that made sure we eliminated assault weapons. The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon — whether it’s a — whether it’s a 9-millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle — is ridiculous. I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things, but I’m not likely to get that done in the near term.” (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)
The media ignores that Biden has made similar statements before, such as at a high-dollar private fundraiser in Seattle in 2019: “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9-mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?”
Even though Biden says: “whether it’s a 9-millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle — is ridiculous. I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things” and now “I don’t see any rationale to why there should be such a weapon able to be purchased,” left-wing fact-checkers at Politifact in the past claimed it is wrong to say that he wants to ban handguns. They said that: “The most popular handguns would face no restrictions under Biden’s policies.” They base that conclusion on the standard magazine that comes with those guns.
For example, the Sig Sauer P365 was ranked the most popular handgun in a 2020 survey of Alabama gun dealers. The NRA’s Shooting Illustrated Magazine named it the Handgun of the Year. The standard magazine for the P365 is 10 rounds, and depending on the model, the weapon can accommodate a 15-round magazine.
Jon Greenberg, “No, Joe Biden doesn’t want to ban handguns,” Politifact, July 22, 2021.
Take a look at the eleven most popular Glocks. None of them come with a standard magazine that can hold twenty bullets, let alone 40 rounds, though some have optional extended magazines that can hold up to 33 rounds. In any case, it is clear that Biden is talking about guns that are capable of holding larger magazines, and any semi-automatic handgun that can hold a magazine can hold one of virtually any size. The vast majority of handgun sales in the US are semi-auto handguns. Take a look at pistol sales in the US compared to revolver sales: In 2018, Pistols 3,881,158 and Revolvers 664,835. So the vast majority of handguns are pistols — 85.4% of all handguns.
- Glock 43 – standard magazine six rounds.
- Glock 42 – standard magazine six rounds.
- Glock 22 – standard magazine fifteen rounds. Optional up to 16 rounds.
- Glock 21 Gen 4 – standard magazine thirteen rounds.
- Glock 30 SF – standard magazine ten rounds. Optional up to 13 rounds.
- Glock 18 – standard magazine nineteen rounds. Optional up to 33 rounds.
- Glock 20 Gen 4 – standard magazine fifteen rounds.
- Glock 17 – standard magazine seventeen rounds. Optional up to 33 rounds.
- Glock 19 – standard magazine fifteen rounds. Optional up to 33 rounds.
- Glock 27 Gen 4 – standard magazine nine rounds. Optional up to 22 rounds.
- Glock 44 – standard magazine ten rounds.
But Politifact doesn’t understand that extended magazines can fit any semi-automatic gun that holds a magazine. Here are the extended magazines that are available for the Sig Sauer P365 that Politifact discusses — they hold 20, 30, and 50 rounds (the numbers that Biden mentions).
Dr. John Lott emailed Jon Greenberg, who wrote the Politifact piece, and Greenberg wrote back:
A handgun with a 10 or 12 round magazine wouldn’t be touched. If someone put a 20-round magazine on it, they would, I assume, be in violation. But not because of the handgun itself. Throw away the magazine, and the weapon is legal.
The problems with this claim are that: 1) This discussion is about banning guns that have “the ability” to fire that many rounds. He doesn’t talk about banning magazines, but guns that have the ability to fire that many rounds. As evidence of this point, it is clear that Biden wants to ban assault weapons that are rifles regardless of how many rounds that they hold, and he lumps those guns together with pistols: “9-millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle.” 2) ALL semi-automatic guns have “the ability” to fire 20 or more rounds.
While a ban has been the obvious goal of Biden’s gun control policies, no national Democrat has openly come out and said that he wants to ban most guns owned in the United States.
One wonders what would have happened if Biden had said this openly during the campaign. Instead, the media attacked Trump as lying when he warned about this danger.
In a piece that John Lott had in the Wall Street Journal Op-ed in October, 2020, he warned: “When President Trump introduced Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, he warned: ‘The coming years will decide the survival of our Second Amendment.’ He’s right.“
Biden is misleading about his claim that crime might be down. Property crime is down and property crime makes up most crime. But at least for the top 10 largest cities violent crime is up by 0.5%. People are primarily concerned about violent crime. Preliminary analysis indicates that murder is up 15.2% so far this year. Even if gun crimes rose by 15% faster than non-gun violent crime, that would still mean that less than 10% of violent crime involved guns. Based on the 2019 NCVS data, gun crime would have to increase 21% faster than total violent crime to get its share to rise above 10%.
This is not the first time that Politifact has come to Biden’s defense.
There is no mention of banning any type of traditional handgun on Biden’s presidential campaign website. Among other measures, his gun control policies include: Banning the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and initiating a buyback of these weapons; closing loopholes in the background check system and requiring checks on all gun sales; and ending the online sale of firearms and ammunitions.
Biden has voted on amendments to ban certain rifles, guns considered assault weapons and semi-automatic weapons. But he has no record of supporting measures that would ban traditional pistols.
We reached out to the NRA but did not receive a response.
We rate this False.
Again, Biden said: “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9-mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?” Note that Biden is saying that he wants to ban semi-automatic handguns that can hold 10 or more rounds, which is ALL handguns that can hold a magazine. The argument for Politifact is that people just don’t understand plain English. The only possibly excuse that Politifact’s leftwing writers is that they simply don’t know anything about guns.
