Self-professed Second Amendment professor, President Joe Biden, reached back into his greatest hits list of gun gaffes to address a Bloomberg-funded gun control group this week. 

The shotgun-warning-shot-advocating chief executive was invited to speak to Everytown’s "Gun Sense University" event at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Tuesday. Preaching to the choir, he regaled the crowd of activists with repeatedly debunked claims that cannons were illegal in past years and that F-15s would be needed to ensure the civil populace at large would be able to counter domestic tyranny. This while he spoke of his time as a "professor" at the University of Pennsylvania and how he formerly taught on the right to keep and bear arms. 

The below was pulled verbatim from the sparkling official White House transcript of the event:

That’s why Everytown, why this summit, why all of you here today are so damn important.  We need you.  We need you to overcome the unrelenting opposition of the gun lobby, gun manufacturers, and so many politicians when they oppose commonsense gun legislation. 

I used to be a law — when I was no longer the vice president, I became a professor at the University of — of Pennsylvania.  Before that, I taught a constitutional law class, and so I taught the — the Second Amendment. 

There’s never been a time that says you can own anything you want.  Th- — never.  You couldn’t own a cannon during the Civil War.  (Laughter.)  No, I’m seri- — think about it.  How much have you heard this phrase?  “The blood of liberty” — (laughter) — “washed with th-” — give me a break.  (Laughter and applause.)

No, I mean it.  Seriously.

And, by the way, if they want to think they — it’s to take on government if we get out of line, which they’re talking again about — well, guess what?  They need F-15s.  They don’t need a rifle.  (Laughter.)

According to a 2022 fact check on Biden's 2017-2019 teaching career at the University of Pennsylvania, for which he received $900,000, his post "involved no regular classes and around a dozen public appearances on campus, mostly in big, ticketed events." Prior to becoming vice president in 2009, Biden was an adjunct professor of law at Widener University in Pennsylvania for 17 years and taught classes while serving in the Senate. This often meant "team-teaching" a class with another professor on Saturday mornings where Biden noted at the time he would be "present for at least half of the class time."

Biden in this week's speech also stressed his reasoning behind his longstanding support of a federal ban on most semi-automatic firearms and their commonly used magazines, chalking it up in part to a folksy allegory about marksmanship and almost impossibly high-capacity mags before deriding them as "weapons of war."

From the transcript:

Who in God’s name needs a magazine which can hold 200 shells?

Nobody.  That’s right. 

I remember when I was campaigning when I was a senator, going through the — through the wetlands of Delaware to meet all the people who were the most upset with me — the fishermen and the hunters.  And I came across a guy who was fishing, and he said, “You want to take my gun.”  And I looked at him, I said, “I — I don’t want to take your gun. You’re allowed to have a gun, but I want to take away your ability to use an assault weapon.”  (Applause.)  And it — well, no, no — here — here — this is how the conversation went.

He said, “What do you mean?  I need that done.” I said, “Guess what? If you need 12 to 100 bullets in a gun — in a magazine, you’re the lousiest shot I’ve ever heard.”  (Laughter and applause.) I’m serious.  And to his credit, he looked at me. He said, “You have a good point.” (Laughter.)

But think about it.  They’re weapons of war. 

It should be noted that Biden has often peppered his speeches over the years with a variety of anecdotes that, while colorful, were just as often found to be more storytelling than story. 

Besides bans on "assault weapons," Biden at this week's Everytown speech advocated for universal background checks, red flag gun seizure laws, and other gun control schemes while referring to the nation's federal firearms regulatory agency as the "AFT."  

Banner image: President Joe Biden departs after delivering remarks at the National League of Cities' 100th Anniversary Conference, Monday, March 11, 2024, at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)