One day after Biden's Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer a question about Biden pursuing gun confiscation policies, the White House posted a graphic on Instragram declaring "Ban Assault Weapons" along with a caption saying "It’s time for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines."
If the Biden administration was expecting a warm reception for its post, they couldn't have been more wrong.
Within two hours of going live, there were more than 4,000 comments on the post and they...weren't messages of support for President Biden and his administration's position on "assault weapons."
"Tyranny against the constitution of the United States," said one user. "Do something to improve mental health. Guns don’t go off unless someone pulls the trigger," commented another. "Take a portion of the money being sent to Ukraine and secure the schools," someone suggested. "How about you ban yourselves," quipped another.
"What about 'shall not be infringed' do you people not understand," commented one user. "Define assault weapon," said another, pointing to the Biden administration's use of buzzwords rather than practical terms to explain its position. "Come and take them," said another user. "This is empty, cynical rhetoric. The Biden regime knows this won’t pass Congress," noted another reply. "Nobody should fall for this garbage."
Other Instagram commenters called out President Biden's hypocrisy on the issue. "Says the guy who armed the Taliban and released an arms dealer," someone noted. "The dude was vice president during F&F lol supplying the cartels with countless firearms," reminded one user. "I lost all my guns in a boating accident," replied another. "Ban presidents who can’t ride a bike," joked one commenter.
It was nearly impossible to find a single comment on the White House's post in support of the Biden administration's call to ban "assault weapons," which makes sense. The reason Congress hasn't passed a new ban on vaguely-dubbed "assault weapons" — a rock, a fist, a cell phone, or a large chair could also be "assault weapons" — is because the American people don't support such a policy.
That, and the previous Clinton-era ban that then-Senator Joe Biden championed didn't work. Katie fact-checked one of Biden's many claims that the previous ban on "assault weapons" worked and saved lives, but that's not the case:
CLAIM: "We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was law for the longest time, and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again."
TRUTH: A 2004 Department of Justice funded study from the University of Pennsylvania Center of Criminology concluded the ban cannot be credited with a decrease in violence carried out with firearms. The report is titled "An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003."
RATING: Biden's claim that the Clinton-era ban on modern sporting rifles "brought down mass killings" is FALSE.