Former Vice President Joe Biden wrote an op-ed in the New York Times Sunday promising a new assault weapons ban, should he be elected.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1241923
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1241923
How is it possible that Biden thinks he alone can do this? Please go away Joe. Any elected Democrat will attempt to do the same.
1 Like
“Because I work well with segregationists, I will get Mitch McConnell to work with me on this…”
2 Likes
“If we cannot rise to meet this moment, it won’t just be a political failure,” Biden writes. “It will be a moral one. It will mean that we accept the next inevitable tragedy. That we are desensitized to children running from schools and bodies littering parking lots, that our outpouring of thoughts and prayers will grow increasingly hollow.”
Where you been, Joe Hands? It has already been that way for a few decades now.
And "thoughts and prayers will grow increasingly hollow”?? As if “thoughts and prayers” have ever been anything but hollow and meaningless platitudes offered by your racist Republican buddies.
Go away, Joe. You’re so last century.
1 Like
Somewhat O/T, but I found this to be an interesting Monday morning headline:
4 Likes
A assault weapons ban is a bandaid on a gushing wound. It will be ineffective, and even counterproductive.
We need to outlaw all semiautomatic weapons - (both semi longarms and handguns). It will not take a constitutional amendment - just a responsible congress. There was no need for a change to the constitution when full auto weapons were outlawed in 1934. A change in the technology required a change in the rules. The same thing happened in the early 70s - I was there, I was a gun hobbyist, I saw it happen. Semiautomatic weapon technology advanced, and the laws didn’t respond.
Don’t let them lie to you anymore. A solution is possible.
4 Likes
Why is it a band-aid? Total solution, no of course not. But it is not a small step at all. The mystique around combat style weapons is as much a a draw as any practical benefit. And the manufacturers have used that to propagate far too many weapons of that type out there.
7 Likes
Hopefully, Joe and everyone else will ignore your unhelpful, nonsensical vitriol.
The NYT piece a good Op-ed that gets to the crux of the problem.
We need an assault weapons ban and an aggressive buy-back plan.
7 Likes
Be all that as it may, I appreciate what he wrote.
5 Likes
Realizing full well that even a ban on “assault weapons” alone is not going to get past a Republican Senate, I would still say that it would be a start.
In what sense do you mean it would be “counterproductive”?
3 Likes
I agree – but do you disagree with the policy proposals he is trying to advance in the op-ed?
5 Likes
Ain’t gonna happen. And even if it did, very, very few owners of those millions of weapons would turn them in. And the chances of Congress appropriating the money to buy them back would be even less than the chances of the ban you call for. And even then, owners wouldn’t turn them in.
What you are calling for makes sense in pure logic. But not in the real world of 21st century America.
2 Likes
This would be a positive policy step but it also falls in the general pattern of Biden bringing things back from the past (like promising to reappoint Garland). It would be nice if he had proposed a bold new piece of legislation.
1 Like
Not at all. What I know is that Joe ill-equipped to manage the politics to get it passed through the House and Senate. We need a leader that can build the Democratic Party and the Progressive movement, and not kowtow to racist Republicans. Joe is way too out-of-touch to do that.
He still thinks racist Republicans want to work with Democrats, and Jesse Helms is still a role model for him.
They would if it was a felony if they did not (after a grace period). And we need a Democrat that is willing to continue to rally the country, and not disappear into the White House.
We could take the Senate back with a 50 state strategy and Democratic Party Leaders who had vision. But Schumer and Pelosi ain’t it. They have had their chance and they have failed.
IF only I could believe that the reason they chose to publish this had nothing to do with the Horse race the Major Media, NYTimes in particular, want to see to keep their ratings up.
2 Likes
I don’t understand. Are you suggesting that newspapers (or major media) should not publish op-eds written by candidates? Because to do so is to treat the primaries as a horse-race?
2 Likes
The point is that Biden is saying if the current Senate won’t pass an assault weapons ban, then you should replace your (red state) senator.
He’s doing what I was worried Mr. Bipartisanship wouldn’t do, which is take the battle to the Republicans in the Senate.
1 Like
Not counting suicides, just violent gun deaths, we killed ten times the number in three minutes that Japan has in one year, 2017. 34 vs 3. That’s what assault weapons give us.
3 Likes
But will it be a total ban or a partial ban? Dems, please take the next two debates arguing amongst yourselves and ignoring the menace in the White House.
1 Like
@tena is very interested in flipping Texas, I hope this makes her day (and let’s her support EWFP 
)
1 Like