President Joe Biden’s aim was way off Wednesday when he misfired in a comment about the Second Amendment, according to a major fact-checking website.
Politifact ruled against Biden on Friday, saying, “Biden misrepresents what the Second Amendment says.”
During his pitch for gun anti-gun proposals, Biden sought to imply he was following in the path of the Founding Fathers.
“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,” Biden said Wednesday according to a White House transcript of his comments.
“Those who say the blood of lib- — ‘the blood of patriots,’ you know, and all the stuff about how we’re going to have to move against the government. Well, the tree of liberty is not watered with the blood of patriots. What’s happened is that there have never been — if you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons,” he said.
Politifact noted that during the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden claimed that during the Revolutionary War, while the United States was governed by the feeble Article of Confederation, individuals were banned from owning cannons.
That claim was rated as malarkey.
Joe Biden is as familiar with the Second Amendment as Hunter is with wholesome living.
— Jeff (@HookEm4EVR) June 24, 2021
There’s maybe never been a president with less knowledge and worse messaging on the Second Amendment than President Biden.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) June 24, 2021
Biden just said that from the very day that Second Amendment was written, it limited what weapons one could own.
It’s really time for the cognitive test.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 24, 2021
The text of the Second Amendment opposes limits on the right to bear arms.
“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,” it reads.
University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds said the text does not limit ownership.
“The Second Amendment places no limits on individual ownership of cannon, or any other arms,” Reynolds said.
In the modern debate over limits on gun ownership, a 2008 Supreme Court ruling said that individuals have the right to own guns.
“The amendment limited government action, not people,” said Fordham University law professor Nicholas Johnson.
“From the way Biden put it, the Second Amendment regulated weapons. The more immediate driver in 1787 was the desire to keep the federal government in check,” Politifact wrote.
“The framers of the Constitution agreed that a federal government might need a standing army. But coming out from under one despot, they wanted to avoid creating another,” it said.
In ruling against Biden’s accuracy, the site wrote, “Biden said that from the start, the Second Amendment ‘limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own.'”
But, the site said, “The Second Amendment limited government power, not the rights of individuals.”
“We rate Biden’s claim False,” it concluded.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
