While speaking to the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday, President Biden took credit for the last federal "assault weapon" ban on popular semi-auto rifles and said he wants to do it again.
Biden, who only hours before the attempted assassination of President Trump on Saturday called for strict national gun control including to "ban assault weapons and require universal background checks," paid lip service on Sunday by urging both sides to turn down the heat when it comes to political rhetoric, then went right back to pumping up his base on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
After calling to end violence of the sort "perpetrated against George Floyd," Biden pivoted to speak to American gun policy and crime, capping it by saying, "It's sheer cowardice if we do nothing about it. So, if you want to stand against violence in America, then join me in getting these weapons of war off the streets of America. An AR-15 was used in the shooting of Donald Trump just it was an assault weapons that kill so many others including children.
"It's time to outlaw them I did it once and I will do it again," said Biden, referring to his leadership while in the Senate to narrowly pass the original and problematic 1994 federal Assault Weapon Ban, which targeted popular semi-automatic firearms over cosmetic features and arbitrary magazine capacity sizes. The national ban expired in 2004, although 10 blue states and the District of Columbia have local bans.
Gun industry trade groups estimate that upward of 24 million AR-15 and AK-47-style rifles are in circulation in the country, along with a billion or so detachable magazines.
