Democrats haven’t given up on bringing back the federal ban on military-style weapons that lapsed in 2004. The president says he’ll get it done.
President Joe Biden says he’ll add a federal ban on assault weapons to his list of legislative accomplishments despite the political headwinds facing gun control and the president’s agenda.
Biden made the comment in an interview to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday evening as the president touted his legislative wins since taking office. Those victories include a bipartisan bill that became the first gun safety package passed by Congress in nearly two decades. Without offering details, Biden said he would successfully seek national prohibitions on military-style rifles, a goal that’s long eluded gun safety advocates.
“By the way, I’m going to get an assault weapons ban,” Biden told Tapper. “Before this is over, I’m going to get that again. Not a joke, and watch.”
Semi-automatic AR-15s and other military-style rifles became legal federally in 2004 when then-President George W. Bush and Congress, then controlled by Republicans, allowed the national ban to expire. The federal ban on military-style rifles had been passed in 1993 with bipartisan support and was signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
