Vice President Harris and several advisers to President Biden previously said that they support mandatory arms buyback, which would force Americans to hand over certain types of weapons in exchange for monetary compensation.
Among those who expressed support for this policy are press secretary Jen Psaki, deputy chief of staff Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to Biden and the director of the Office of Public Engagement. These comments were made before working for Biden.
The mandatory arms buyback, which basically amounts to arms confiscation, is different from what Biden himself said he supports. The president, during the campaign and currently on his website, advocates giving Americans the option of having the government buy back weapons commonly known as assault weapons, or of registering them under the restrictive National Firearms Act.
“This is something I would not rule out. These are weapons of mass destruction,” Richmond said on CNN in 2019, when asked about mandatory repurchases. Richmond was still a member of the House of Representatives at the time.
Vice President Harris, when she was running for president, supported mandatory arms buyback. (Toni L. Sandys / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
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“So if it is a repurchase, I am totally in favor. If it is a mandatory repurchase, I think you may have some complications, but thinking about it does not offend me and it seems like something I could support,” he added.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Harris when asked about mandatory repurchases, according to Bloomberg.
During the presidential campaign, many Democrats were thrilled by the comments of former deputy Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, when he said he would be happy to receive the AR-15s from the Americans.
“Hell, yes, let’s get your AR-15, AK-47,” said O’Rourke in a Democratic presidential debate.
“Americans who have AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell their assault weapons,” he said during the campaign.
Former Representative Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana, speaks during a press conference at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. Richmond is now a senior adviser to President Biden (Erin Scott / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Psaki, on the night of the debate, when O’Rourke made his “Hell yes” promise enthusiastically supported the then candidate’s “take up arms” mission.
“Thanks @BetoORourke, take the guns,” she said in a tweet. “Please. Nobody needs an assault weapon. This is a crisis.”
O’Malley Dillon worked for O’Rourke at the time and she also advocated mandatory arms buyback.
“In fact, we are the only campaign with a plan … that supports the mandatory repurchase of weapons of war,” she said in a video on YouTube.
“A ban on assault weapons is very important and we need to have it. But that only takes the weapons of war off the streets in the future. It does nothing for the weapons of war that exist today and I think there are 15 or 16 million,” ‘Malley Dillon added.
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The comments do not necessarily represent the position of the Biden government, especially as the now senior advisers made the comments before joining the president. But it is notable that so many at the highest levels of the Biden government have asked for arms confiscation in the past.
Democrats revived their gun control calls after a shooting in Colorado this week that killed 10 people in a supermarket.
The White House confirmed that Biden’s position to support voluntary arms buybacks – or to force owners to register under the National Firearms Act – has not changed. But he did not respond to questions from Fox News asking whether mandatory arms buyback is on the table for the president or whether Biden would veto any bill that includes such a program, no matter what else is in the bill.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), the leading arms rights advocacy group in the United States, had previously attacked Biden and Harris for allegedly wanting to “confiscate” weapons and said Biden “would leave Americans defenseless and at the mercy of criminals”. The group warned on Tuesday that some “have already rushed to politicize” the “horrible” shooting in Colorado.
“The men and women of the NRA are saddened by this tragic and meaningless crime. It is our long standing rule to wait for all the facts to be known before making any political statements,” the group said in a statement. “Unfortunately, gun control advocates have already rushed to politicize this horrific situation – although most of the important facts remain unknown. We would like to express our gratitude to the police authorities, rescuers and local authorities for their courageous efforts. We support their pursuits. of the facts involved. “
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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said he plans to take House-approved weapons projects to the Senate floor after the shooting in Colorado, and Harris at CBS on Wednesday called for legislation on weapons.
Harris said Biden is not “excluding” executive action on limiting access to firearms, adding that in order to take “lasting” measures, Democrats will have to pass a bill. Biden also asked the Senate to approve the House’s gun control bills.
The Chamber’s projects notably do not include a ban on “assault weapons”, much less mandatory arms buyback.
Some Republican congressmen expressed an openness to negotiate with the Democrats some form of an arms bill. But it is highly unlikely that a mandatory repurchase would remove the Senate’s 60-vote obstruction barrier needed to reach a final vote, and it is unclear how much common ground there should be between Democrats and Republicans on this issue.
Many Democrats have said they support the removal of legislative obstruction so that they can pass important legislation without the support of the Republican Party. But it is not clear whether they would be able to gather all their caucus with such gambito, especially because Sens. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Said they want to leave obstructionism in place.
Paul Steinhauser of Fox News contributed to this report.