Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Americans don’t need semi-automatic weapons to protect their homes because a couple of blasts from a shotgun will scare off intruders.
“Buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun,” the vice president encouraged those worried about defending themselves. He was speaking in an online video as part of a Facebook town hall hosted by Parents Magazine on the administration’s strategy for reducing gun violence, which he has led at the direction of President Barack Obama.
Biden said he keeps two shotguns and shells locked up at home and he’s told his wife, Jill, to use them if she needs protection. He presumably was speaking about before he became vice president, a position that gives the couple full-time Secret Service protection.
“I said, ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony … take that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,'” Biden said. “You don’t need an AR-15. It’s harder to aim, it’s harder to use and in fact, you don’t need 30 rounds to protect yourself.”
Biden’s answer came in response to a question posted by a Facebook user about whether the administration’s proposal to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines would make law-abiding citizens more of a target of criminals since they wouldn’t have a sufficient way of protecting themselves. Biden bristled at the question, saying he’s never heard such sentiments in the pages of Parents Magazine.
“But I’m delighted to answer them,” he added quickly.
Biden said he learned his lessons on gun safety from his father, who was a hunter. He said as a child, he wasn’t even allowed to point a cap gun at other children while playing cops and robbers. He said most gun owners are very responsible, but parents should make sure guns are locked up to keep children safe, just like pool gates and liquor cabinets.
He also said he doesn’t think the Second Amendment‘s right to bear arms should be changed. He said limits on the use of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines is compatible with that right.
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Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
4 thoughts on “Biden: Shotguns work just fine for home protection”
The opinion that the Second Amendment was created to keep government in check and subservient to the people is nothing more then paranoid nonsense!
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
There is nothing in that amendment that states gun ownership is given to the people to protect themselves from some paranoid thought up government attack. It is total nonsense to believe so!
However, the Supreme Court has definitively held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use that weapon for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within ones home and the hunting of game, period!
Just a few other “paranoids” spewing “nonsense” I suppose…
I feel sorry for you Bill. It’s obvious from your language that you know nothing of our rights or how to keep them safe. I do hope you figure it out before you lose them forever. Though you seem to enjoy licking the boots that crush your throat. SLURP!
For many decades federal courts overwhelmingly rejected the conclusion that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right. It wasn’t until the 21st century that the lower federal courts, filled with appointees of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, started to adopt the individual-rights position.
In the District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that despite state laws individuals who were not part of a state militia did have the right to bear arms. As part of its ruling the court wrote, “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”
The Supreme Court ruled on the issue again two years later as part of McDonald v. City of Chicago which challenged the city’s ban on private handgun ownership. In a similar ruling the court affirmed its decision in the Heller case saying the Second Amendment “applies equally to the federal government and the states.” Prior to these decisions the Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975 restricted residents from owning handguns except for those registered prior to 1975.
Links? Look it up yourself!
The Second Amendment isn’t about protecting your home. It’s about keeping government in check and subservient to the people. Mr Biden knows this, which is why he is happy to change the focus of the argument to hunting and home protection every chance he gets.
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