Vice President Joe Biden mocks the idea that there are actual gun owners who oppose President Obama’s executive orders on gun control.
When asked by to respond to gun owners critical of Obama’s decision in an interview with NBC Connecticut’s Keisha Grant, Biden interrupted the question with an incredulous laugh.
He reminded Grant that he was a gun owner, and suggested that the average gun owner wasn’t concerned about Obama taking his guns.
“This idea that the average gun owner saying, ‘I’m a gun owner’ – and I am one – is sitting at home and saying ‘you know Obama’s really trying to take away my shotgun.’ That’s just bizarre, they just don’t think that way,” Biden insisted.
Leaning forward in his chair, Biden said that Obama’s new executive actions were trying to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people:
Do you think someone who is schizophrenic should be able to buy a gun? Do you think someone who’s a convicted felon and is out of prison after 10 years should go at the first stop be able to stop and pick up a Glock or a 9mm handgun? Do you think someone who has been convicted of being a wife beater, and a spousal beater do you think that person should be able to have a gun?
Biden argued that Obama’s actions were specifically directed at stopping people who weren’t mentally capable or had criminal records from owning a gun, but were focused on enforcement of the laws already on the books.
He condemned the “silly responses” from Republicans, who continue to raise concerns about gun rights.
Biden blinked back tears as he recalled the deaths of the children in Sandy Hook Elementary, pointing out that he had something in common with the parents of those children.
“We share a lousy thing in common, I’ve lost a couple of children,” Biden said, adding that he keeps in contact with the family members frequently.
“It’s something that haunts you,” he said. “It’s the idea of those beautiful little babies in those classrooms like dolls discarded,” he said. “If you focus on it, it’s hard not to be moved by it.”
He said that he was “surprised and disappointed” that more gun control actions were not passed in Congress after the Sandy Hook shooting.
“I knew it would be really, really, really tough, but I thought we would succeed,” he said.