Joe Biden's Most Absurd Comments

The Blaze has a list of Biden's five most absurd comments on the gun issue.  Here's my favorite.

“Just fire the shotgun through the door”

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After giving his advice to go out and “buy a shotgun” rather than an AR-15, Biden issued, perhaps, his most controversial gun comment to date.

During an interview with Field and Stream, an outdoors magazine, the vice-president gave additional advice to those looking to protect themselves against would-be intruders: “Just fire the shotgun through the door.”

And, again, he said that most can ”handle a shotgun a hell of a lot better than they can a semi-automatic weapon.” Here’s a full transcript of his comments:

Well, the way in which we measure it is—I think most scholars would say—is that as long as you have a weapon sufficient to be able to provide your self-defense. I did one of these town-hall meetings on the Internet and one guy said, “Well, what happens when the end days come? What happens when there’s the earthquake? I live in California, and I have to protect myself.”

I said, “Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.” Most people can handle a shotgun a hell of a lot better than they can a semi-automatic weapon in terms of both their aim and in terms of their ability to deter people coming. We can argue whether that’s true or not, but it is no argument that, for example, a shotgun could do the same job of protecting you. Now, granted, you can come back and say, “Well, a machine gun could do a better job of protecting me.” No one’s arguing we should make machine guns legal.

But as we’ve noted, just shooting through a door isn’t necessarily the best foot forward in terms of ensuring self-protection.

Biden Mocking the Black Helicopter Crowd

Michelle Malkin Blog

“Kinda scary man, the black helicopter crowd is really upset,” Biden said, criticizing the National Rifle Association for promoting a “misinformation campaign” on background checks.

Biden insisted that there would be no central registry for background checks allowing government to keep records on gun owners.

I suppose Michelle is posting this in some attempt to discredit the Vice President.  I don't see it, myself.  In this one he seems to be right on the mark.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

The NRA on Biden's Shotgun Advice

 NRA-ILA

As often as he puts his foot in his mouth, it's a wonder Vice-President Joe Biden can walk. The often irascible and unpredictable Biden said this week, in an online Facebook town hall "chat" sponsored by Parents Magazine, that women who have to protect their homes and families from intruders should just walk outside and fire two blasts from a double barreled shotgun.

A FoxNews.com article reported that Biden claims to keep two shotguns locked up at his home, and that he has told his wife, Jill, to use them if she needs 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.

That advice would be illegal in most situations, and dangerous both for the potential victim, and for the general public.

When they're right they're right.

Reactions to Joe Biden's Ridiculous Shot Gun Comments

Biden's Seven Points - First Three about Background Checks

Alternet 

Vice-President Joe Biden's first detailed remarks about the package of gun control reforms he intends to present next Tuesday to President Obama are solid first steps. 

Speaking Thursday in Washington in between meetings with various gun control constituencies -- from pro-control victims groups and public health physicians on one side to the NRA on the other side -- Biden laid out seven proposals that would more or less reset the federal clock on gun control laws to where it was in 1985, a year before Congress started loosening decades of laws under the Reagan administration and NRA lobbying. Biden repeatedly earned an F rating from the NRA during his tenure in the Senate.  

Here are the seven agenda items, which Biden said had near-unanimous support from gun control groups. 

1) Close the so-called gun show loophole. In 1986, Congress passed a law allowing people to buy a firearm at one of the thousands of gun shows held each year across the country. These sales require no licensing of the gun buyer, no background checks, no waiting periods before getting the gun, no reporting sales to local or federal authorities. Today, 40 percent of gun sales annually across the county occur at gun shows, and by some estimates 80 percent of weapons used in crimes are bought at gun shows.
“There is a surprising—so far—a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks, not just close the gun show loophole but totally universal background checks including private sales,” Biden said. 

2) Universal background checks for gun buyers; and 3) improve background check database. These two proposals are connected and face significant political, technical and legal hurdles. Congress has barred certain groups of people from owning guns for decades, starting with felons in 1934. In 1968, Congress expanded that list to include the mentally ill and drug addicts. In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Bill—named after Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was shot—which instituted a federal system of background checks for gun buyers, and extended the waiting period to five days before buyers could get their guns. 

The background check system has been in shambles for years, as AlterNet has reported, with three-quarters of the states choosing not to share court information about felons and the mentally ill with federal authorities, and the Supreme Court ruling in 1997 that states didn’t have to comply with the reporting requirement. 

Even though Congress passed a 2007 law creating federally administered grants to states to overcome technical hurdles with sending information to the Justice Department (some states submit information electronically; others infrequently mail a CD) only a dozen states account for most of the data six years after that became law. Biden complained about this non-compliance Thursday. However, the solution doesn’t appear to be a quick fix if past is precedent. 

“It doesn’t do a lot of good when in some states they have a backlog of 40, 50, 60,000 felons that they never registered here,” Biden said. “So we have got to talk about, there is a lot of talk about how we entice, or what is the impediment keeping states from relaying this information.”

The NRA Reaction to Vice-President Biden's Efforts

Yahoo News reports

Not that there was ever much doubt, but the National Rifle Association bluntly declared on Thursday that it would not cooperate with any White House drive for gun control in the aftermath of the elementary school slaughter in Newtown, Conn.

“We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment,” the powerful lobbying group said in a statement after talks with Vice President Joe Biden.

"While claiming that no policy proposals would be 'prejudged,' this task force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners—honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans," the NRA said. 

"We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen," the organization said.

There's a built-in lie in the NRA position. They refuse to acknowledge that those "lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans" are the source of nearly all the guns used in crime.

There are four major ways in which guns are diverted into the criminal world.  The recent Newtown CT incident is an example of theft. It makes perfect sense that gun restrictions must be aimed at the folks who own guns legally.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Jon Stewart on the Fox Spin about the VP Debate

Well Done, Mr. Vice President!

A clip from the View, 9/27/'11 episode:

This touches on gun violence against women, and firearms used in domestic violence, and therefore fits in here.