USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted, it’s not consistent with what our founders intended,” former Vice President Joe Biden claimed in a wide-ranging policy discussion with University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann Thursday. “What’s happened here is the nation as a whole has decided it can no longer, in my view, continue to turn a blind eye to the prostitution of the Second Amendment here and can no longer turn a blind eye to the enormous damage being done not just in our schools but on our streets.”
The university is hardly a neutral party.
“Involved for years in fighting for rational gun policy, Biden explained that what is being seen is ‘totally spontaneous’ on the part of the students,” the university’s Penn Today editorialized. Note the not so subtle opinion as to what constitutes “rational gun policy” in a story presented as an objective news report.
“There was no adult inspiration for this,” Biden asserted.
Right. The AstroTurf lawn ornaments are the ones calling the shots.
As for what the Founders intended, their sentiments just aren’t that hard to find. What is hard to find are any quotes that refute the individual rights “interpretation.” Some of us have been waiting decades for a responsive answer to requests for evidence proving otherwise. We haven’t received one because there isn’t one.
Ditto for the often-repeated lie that courts haven’t considered the Second Amendment to apply to an individual right until recent NRA revisionism. Bunk.
From William Rawle, whose “View of the Constitution was standard law text at leading universities well into the Nineteenth Century:
“No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give the Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under a general pretence by a state legislature. But if in any pursuit of an inordinate power either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both.”
Those parroting the lie along with Biden never seem to mention a common understanding at the time the Supreme Court shared in its notorious Dred Scott decision. One of the reasons they cited why the plaintiff would not be viewed as a citizen with full rights was:
“It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to … keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
Those so recognized did not need to be called up for “common defense” militia duty to exercise their right.
Speaking of which, here’s what the Supreme Court had to say in Miller:
“[T]he Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense … [who] were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time [and] “the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear … ordinary military equipment … that … could contribute to the common defense.”
Those citizens couldn’t very well fulfill that duty if they didn’t already possess such arms and have the ability to travel freely with them.
The question now is, are we to believe Joe Biden isn’t aware of these, in which case he’s incompetent and unqualified to comment, or should we assume that he’s fully aware and says what he says anyway, in which case he’s a liar?
That’s a tough one to call (and they’re not mutually exclusive), although looking at two previous times he’s presumed authority on self-defense tactics suggests he really is that ignorant. Perhaps cluelessness is something those behind putting Biden in positions of power can count on for reasons of their own.
“I said, Jill, if there’s ever a problem just walk out on the balcony here … put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,” he claims he instructed his wife.
“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,” he says he advised a California town hall meeting attendee concerned about the aftermath of a major earthquake.
Biden has evidently never heard of Jeff Cooper’s rules.
Nor has he shared where he acquired such expertise in defensive gun use. Can he name one qualified instructor of note who advises firing in the air or through a door at targets unknown? Is that what police are taught, and are they likely to be sympathetic to anyone who follows Biden’s advice?
It’s curious that Biden chooses to use the word “prostitution” as a way to attack the character of those who know better than him on both founding intent and on proper and lawful gun use. Considering how well-rewarded he’s been for faithlessness to his oath, it’s fair to wonder how much of that may be projection.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.