President Joe Biden evidently cannot control himself to stop telling the whopper about a non-existent prohibition on cannon ownership—he’s been called out in the past by the Washington Post’s superb fact-checker Glenn Kessler—but when he did it this time, he shifted the story to a different time in history.
Originally, Biden’s tale about the Second Amendment disallowing cannon ownership was at the time of the Founding. When he mentioned it the other day during a speech at Everytown For Gun Safety’s “Gun Sense University,” the calendar had shifted to the Civil War era, according to a transcript of his remarks posted by the White House. But, he was still wrong.
His canard still was noted by the New York Post, which reported, “You couldn’t own a cannon during the Civil War,” the 81-year-old president claimed. “No, I’m serious. Think about it.”
Obviously, the Post did think about it, and followed Biden’s quote with this: “Historically, the few examples of post-Civil War restrictions related to cannons largely dealt with limiting where they could be discharged, restricting the sale of the weapon to children and regulating how gunpowder could be stored.”
The story then recalled how Second Amendment legal specialists David Kopel and Joseph Greenlee found a “near absence” about restrictions on cannon ownership in the 19th Century, and noted how Kopel had judged Biden’s claim as “patently false.”
But Biden can’t get away from the prevarication, which raises a question about his veracity when he tells ABC that he would not consider a pardon for his now-convicted son on federal gun law violations. The National Desk reported Biden’s remarks.
Then came the report that the White House had not ruled out the possibility that President Biden would commute whatever sentence Hunter draws from the court.
This has opened up speculation that if Biden loses the November election, on his way out the door in January, he will renege on the pledge and hand Hunter a get-out-of-jail-free card with a full pardon for violating a law Joe has championed (along with every other gun control restriction).
While Biden’s cannon fantasy may seem on the surface to be a petty bit of political trivia, it underscores something Washington, DC, has known about Joe Biden for decades and may be best illustrated in a line of dialogue spoken by the great actor Charles Loughton in a film titled “Witness for the Prosecution.” The scene plays out as Loughton, a prosecutor in an English courtroom, shredding the credibility of a witness, portrayed by Marlene Deitrich, declares her to be “a chronic and habitual LIAR!”
As the trial of Hunter Biden has demonstrated, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Hunter was found guilty of lying on a federal Form 4473 when he marked the “No” box where the form asks whether the applicant is a habitual drug user.
The same trial also cleared up any doubt about Hunter’s laptop being genuine and not a Russian hoax, a separate fabrication for which the establishment media owes the nation an apology.
During Biden’s “Gun Sense University” speech, he did touch on something which—in addition to his son becoming a convicted felon on a gun charge—could cause the president considerable trouble on the campaign trail. He told his audience of gun prohibitionists, “You know, the year before I came to the presidency, the murder rate was the highest increase on record. Last year, we saw the largest decrease of murder in the history of (the country).”
What he failed to mention is that during the same period, private gun ownership has gone steadily upward, essentially destroying another myth about guns. More guns do not result in more violent crime, a fact that Biden overlooked but which Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms quickly spotlighted.
“More guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is probably a deterrent,” Gottlieb said. “Recent data shows a 6.7 percent increase in gun ownership between 2017 and 2023, and during that period, gun ownership among women went up 13.6 percent.”
Gottlieb pointed to an FBI announcement which revealed, “A comparison of data from agencies that voluntarily submitted at least two or more common months of data for January through March 2023 and 2024 indicates reported violent crime decreased by 15.2 percent. Murder decreased by 26.4 percent, rape decreased by 25.7 percent, robbery decreased by 17.8 percent, and aggravated assault decreased by 12.5 percent. Reported property crime also decreased by 15.1 percent.”
“This is a significant report,” Gottlieb said, “because it literally destroys a myth that has been perpetuated for years by the gun prohibition lobby, that more guns results in more violent crime. Today, 29 states have passed laws eliminating the need for permits to carry firearms for personal protection, yet crime is down. More than 21 million Americans are licensed to carry, according to the most recent available data, suggesting they aren’t a problem, but might be part of the solution.”
Joe Biden now has a couple of prickly problems as he pursues a second term, and they boil down to his history as a rabid gun control proponent. It’s a problem best summed up by CCRKBA in a statement following Hunter’s guilty verdict. It might be called a lesson in karma.
“At some point President Biden must reflect on his half-century of gun control extremism and acknowledge that none of the laws he championed prevented his son from illegally buying a gun and being convicted of the crime in a Delaware courtroom. Meanwhile, millions of American citizens who have committed no crimes are nevertheless penalized daily by the laws and regulations the president and his anti-run-rights allies have supported in the misguided belief they have the moral high ground. Today proved otherwise.”
About Dave Workman
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