The White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden won’t rule out using executive orders to enact stringent gun control measures.
The subject came up during a White House press conference, in the wake of Biden’s recent comments pushing gun control.
Biden had called for banning some semi-automatic firearms, banning “high capacity” magazines, and eliminating civil liability protection for gun manufacturers.
The Hill notes that amid this recent push for gun restrictions, “A November Gallup poll found support for stricter gun laws is at its lowest level since 2016.”
A reporter asked Psaki, “What is your timetable for action on what the president calls common sense measures? And what’s the realistic hope that you have this will pass both houses?”
Psaki replied, “Well, we haven’t proposed a package at this point. So it’s hard for me to make a prediction about its likelihood of passing.”
“But I will say that the president is somebody throughout his career who has advocated for smart gun safety measures,” Psaki continued. “He has not been afraid of standing up to the NRA.”
She continued, “He’s done it multiple times and won on background checks and a range of issues.”
Psaki also said that implementing gun control was personal for President Biden.
“And it is a priority to him on a personal level, but I don’t have a prediction for you, or preview for you on a timeline of a package, and certainly not what it will look like and how it goes through Congress” she said.
Another reporter asked later during the conference, “Does the president still plan to take executive action on gun control?”
“The president has a range of actions at his disposal,” Psaki replied. “He hasn’t ruled out either of those options.”
Watch:
Last week, Biden called on Congress to “enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”
Now that Biden has made his proclamations… would any of this actually work?
Reason’s Jacob Sullum notes the ridiculousness of Biden’s gun control gambit.
“This week, President Joe Biden marked the three-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by urging Congress to ‘enact commonsense gun law reforms.’ Sullum wrote Tuesday.
“The implication was that the gun controls Biden favors would prevent crimes like the Parkland massacre.”
There is little reason to think that’s true,” Sullum insisted. “The bills Biden is eager to sign would instead arbitrarily limit Second Amendment rights and threaten the viability of the industry that makes it possible to exercise them.”
Sullum takes aim at calls to ban “assault” weapons, but the problem is that these calls merely cover aesthetic modifications:
The problem, according to Biden, was that manufacturers could comply with the law by “making minor modifications to their products — modifications that leave them just as deadly.”
But there is no way around that problem, since laws like these are based on “military-style” features, such as folding stocks, threaded barrels, and bayonet mounts, that have nothing to do with a weapon’s destructive power.
Ironically, perhaps the most extreme of Biden’s positions – that gun manufacturers could be held liable if a criminal uses one of their products in a crime, was shot down by none other than socialist Bernie Sanders.
Sullum writes, “As Sen. Bernie Sanders, I–Vermont, noted in 2016, exposing businesses to potentially ruinous judgments when a legally purchased firearm is used to commit a crime is a prescription for “ending gun manufacturing in America,” meaning “your position is there should not be any guns in America, period.”
He concludes, “Biden’s ‘commonsense’ gun control prescriptions are ‘common’ in the sense that politicians often push them.”
“Whether they make ‘sense’ is another matter,” Sullum finishes.
By Grace-Marie Turner for RealClearHealth Step by step, for nearly 70 years, liberals have been…
Republican lawmakers thoroughly denounced Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland for personally approving the raid on…
Former President Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of the search warrant for the…
Facing what by all accounts will be a drubbing on election night, Democrats are scrambling…
By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square) Preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a…
Multiple outlets reported that an informant inside Donald Trump's circle tipped off the FBI to…