During a Thursday speech in New York City that was billed as addressing the crime crisis laying siege to cities across the country, President Biden sounded more like a broken record of debunked claims that have been repeatedly rated false by even his friends in the liberal media.
And while Biden's alleged focus on rising crime is certainly merited, his administration has belittled and mocked Americans who are struggling as cities grow more dangerous, the U.S.-Mexico border remains basically wide-open, and fentanyl overdoses continue to claim young lives. Rather than talking tough about the criminals running city streets, illegal immigrants streaming across the border, or mayors in his party who've already defunded police, Biden targeted law-abiding firearm owners and the Second Amendment itself.
In addition to these problems with Biden's remarks, he also repeated a definitively debunked claim about the Second Amendment and the rights it protects from government infringement. "You couldn't buy a cannon when this amendment was passed," the president claimed of the right to keep and bear arms.
Thursday wasn't the first time President Biden tried to use the off-hand but factually incorrect statement in an attempt to undermine the Second Amendment rights of Americans. On June 23rd, 2021, Biden also claimed that "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. You couldn’t buy a cannon." And even before that instance, while campaigning for the presidency on May 21, 2020, Biden said in a video that "You weren't allowed to own a cannon during the Revolutionary War as an individual."
It was a lie in May 2020, it was a lie in June 2021 and it was a lie in February 2022. And it's a lie that Biden is trying to use as a basis, a false precedent of sorts, for his own limits on Americans' Second Amendment freedoms.
Biden and his staff, of course, know that the claim is false. The Washington Post fact-checked the president's use of the alleged fact back in June and awarded the lie "Four Pinocchios." PolitiFact rated the May 2020 use of the falsehood by Biden "false" as well. WaPo's fact check was pretty brutal:
Some readers might think this is a relatively inconsequential flub. But we disagree. Every U.S. president has a responsibility to get American history correct, especially when he’s using a supposed history lesson in service of a political objective. The president’s push for more gun restrictions is an important part of his political platform, so he undercuts his cause when he cites faux facts.
Moreover, Biden has already been fact-checked on this claim — and it’s been deemed false. We have no idea where he conjured up this notion about a ban on cannon ownership in the early days of the Republic, but he needs to stop making this claim.
Whether Biden knows he's repeatedly lying to the American people or not — he clearly doesn't care either way — isn't even the worst aspect of the situation, it's that he's trying to make the case that the Second Amendment is not that big of a deal and just a pseudo-permission slip for whatever the government decides is an appropriate right to firearm ownership.
It's a nefarious and transparent attempt to go after those who are law-abiding while he and his fellow Democrats continue to make penalties for criminals less severe. There are myriad examples from cities such as Chicago and New York that show laws narrowing Second Amendment rights don't stop gun violence, they just empower criminals while making law-abiding citizens more vulnerable and less able to defend themselves, their family, and their property.