President Biden discussed what he calls “high-caliber weapons” Monday, seeming to suggest that handguns like the 9mm pistol should be banned.
Biden made the comments while speaking to reporters outside the White House after returning to Washington from visiting Texas.
He recounted a visit to a trauma hospital in New York, where he said doctors showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds.
“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body,” he said.
“So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting,” he continued. “Remember, the constitution was never absolute”.
“You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden added. “You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry”.
The president went on to rule out the possibility of issuing an executive order on guns. “I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take”.
“But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t, you know, change the background checks. I can’t do that,” he explained.
Biden’s current comments line up with his rhetoric from the 2020 presidential campaign.
“Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?” he asked at a 2019 conference in Seattle.