As families in Uvalde, Texas, mourn 19 children and two teachers murdered by a teen gunman this week, a Florida lawmaker said in a tweet that President Joe Biden would “learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place,” if he tried to “take our guns.”
Florida State Rep. Randy Fine (R-53), who called Biden “the embarrassment that claims to be our President,” later said that he tweeted the comment to remind “folks of the roots of the Second Amendment.”
“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,” reads the amendment.
According to analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution provided by the government, there has been a struggle to find “definitive resolution by the courts of just what right the Second Amendment protects,” in over 200 years of debate.
States are generally allowed to set their own gun ownership laws. Some states, such as Illinois, have strict laws and others, such as Texas, allow easier access to guns.
However, this allows guns to move from states with more lenient laws to states with more strict regulations. For example, a 2017 NBC News report said that 60% of the guns recovered in Chicago, Ill., actually came from other states – including Texas.
Salvador Ramos – the 18-year-old who killed students and teachers at Robb elementary School in Uvalde Tuesday – bought two AR-15 rifles he used for the massacre legally, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy assault weapons is just wrong,” said Biden Wednesday in a tweet. “What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?”
Indeed, other countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.K. have stricter gun laws than the U.S. and less mass shooting incidents, the Council on Foreign Relations think tank has found. As of 2018, the U.S. had 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined, according to CNN.
“We know common sense gun laws can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact,” said Biden.
According to Fine’s tweets, it is a “lie of the left that they just want ‘common sense gun control.’” He said Democrats want to confiscate guns.
While Biden did not specifically mention gun confiscation in his remarks after the Uvalde shooting, he did mention the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004.
“When we passed the assault weapons ban – mass shootings went down. When the law expired – mass shootings tripled,” the president said.
Last March, another assault weapons ban was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security last May.
According to a bill summary, the ban would make “it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon (SAW) or large capacity ammunition feeding device (LCAFD),” including the AR-15 style SAW rifles Ramos used.
The bill allows “continued possession, sale, or transfer of a grandfathered SAW, which must be securely stored,” and includes some other exemptions, according to the summary. “A licensed gun dealer must conduct a background check prior to the sale or transfer of a grandfathered SAW between private parties,” it said.
The bill would also allow continued possession of LCAFD guns, but prohibit sale or transfer of grandfathered LCAFDs.
“It’s just sick that gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them some of the biggest profits,” said Biden. “For God’s sake, let’s have the courage to stand up to the industry.”
Fine told reporters that he thought it was “disgraceful,” that Biden brought up gun control discussions in response to the Uvalde shooting. He also said that his tweet about Biden was not a threat and added that he wanted to convey that the second amendment was intended to protect people from an “overarching government.”
According to CBS News poll results released Wednesday, 54% of Americans want laws covering the sale of guns made stricter, 30% said the current laws should stay the same and 16% want them to be less strict.
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