President Biden was recently in Pennsylvania where he campaigned against “assault weapons” again, committing multiple egregious factual errors.

The press describes such events as “gaffes” and the President as “gaffe-prone.”

But simple factual errors occur so frequently, and most often in the context of major policy positions, that one must conclude either the President is either an ignoramus on the whole subject of crime and guns, or he is deliberately demagoguing the subject.

He also took the occasion to spin the yarn that Democrats were not for defunding the police but rather Republicans were. This is because Republicans refused to vote for some Federal funding for police buried in legislation that spent billions on wasteful and unconstitutional spending.

Apparently, Biden is not aware of the summer of 2020, the 700 or so BLM riots, and the frequent calls to “defund the police” by Democrat activists.

Besides, funding or defunding police forces is largely a local matter not within his jurisdiction.

Some time ago, Biden suggested firing shotguns into the air as a way to deter crime and suggested that when assaulted, police should shoot people in the leg.  Brandishing and discharging a firearm is a  crime in itself, and shooting someone in the leg may be one as well. Normally, the use of deadly force is permitted ONLY if the life of the victim or an innocent party is in imminent danger. If imminent danger is not the condition, discharging a firearm into the air, or shooting for the leg, is circumstantial proof that imminent danger was not at hand. Moreover, if imminent danger to life and limb are indeed present, both actions suggested by Biden would not save the lives of the victims because the perpetrator would not be stopped from committing his crime.

Concentrating on “assault weapons”, he told the crowd that the bullet used by AR-15 rifles is five times faster than any other kind of bullet.  He was suggesting that their lethality was therefore on a scale that should not be permitted. However, if the same round is fired from a bolt action rifle, rather than a semi-auto, the speed is the same, but he is not suggesting banning bolt action rifles, or is he?

Ballistically speaking, this is a lie, and anyone could prove it with three minutes’ worth of research. Anyone who has taken high school physics knows that force equals mass times velocity squared. So, the size of the bullet, its speed, what it hits, and how the projectile expands, are also factors in determining lethality.

The .223 or 5.56 mm used in the AR and similar platforms, shoots a very small .22 caliber projectile, commonly 55 to 62 grains in weight. It is so small, that while allowed in some states, most knowledgeable hunters believe the round is too small even for deer hunting. Ironically, the .223 is not permitted for deer hunting in Pennsylvania, the state in which the President was bloviating. The .223 is part of a family of centerfire rifles cartridges generally considered “varmint rounds” only suitable to be used on prairie dogs and coyotes.

As to the velocity of the round, it is not even the fastest, let alone FIVE TIMES as fast. Most .223 rounds travel around 3,200 feet per second.

How does this compare to other rounds?  Well, the .270 Winchester has been around since 1922 and is a popular mid-sized hunting cartridge. With a  90-grain projectile, it travels at 3,600 feet per second.  The .220 Swift similar in size to the .223 is considered the fastest “commercial” cartridge and moves along at 4,200 feet per second. That is 1,000 feet per second faster than the .223.

Custom, hand-loaded rounds, can go even faster.

Biden’s statement suggests the .223 travels at over 20,000 feet per second, which is just errant nonsense.

He also suggested the .223 blows up the target and therefore should be banned. Earlier he had suggested 9mm pistol rounds “blow the lungs out of the body.”

If that were true, Biden is guilty of war crimes because the .223 and 9mm are the standard rifle and pistol ammunition of the US Armed Forces which he commands, and it would violate the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention does not allow rounds to be used in warfare that completely explodes humans.

Some politicians have attacked the AR-15 platform because it is semiautomatic, but an “assault weapon” has a selector switch that allows the rifleman to go to fully automatic, that is one squeeze of the trigger sends multiple rounds downrange, as in a machine gun. ARs that Biden is referring to require one pull of the trigger for one round, which is common in other weapons that are semiautomatic. 

Semiautomatic rifles and pistols have been made since the late 1800s. They no more cause crime than do hands and feet. However, more people are killed annually with hands and feet than with AR-type rifles.

True assault weapons, which have a fully automatic function, are illegal in the US and like all machine guns can be acquired only with special Federal permits.

Biden is somewhat unique in that rather than attacking magazine capacity or appearance, he is attacking the round itself. In so doing, he commits numerous factual errors. One can only surmise he is lying to mislead the public on this subject.

This is not without serious consequences. When a President shows his ignorance of the important subject matter or deliberately lies, it makes citizens wonder if they can believe anything the man is saying. When people can’t believe their President, this is serious. We may face critical issues in the future wherein getting the American public ready to endure a crisis may be necessary. If the President has repeatedly blown his credibility or is believed to be deeply dishonest, he will not be able to rally the public in the event of an emergency.

Besides destroying domestic credibility by constant demonstrations of ignorance, a President may show foreign leaders that he is a buffoon as well. This too, makes the world a much more dangerous place.

This is much more than committing gaffes. President Biden is destroying the credibility of the most powerful office in the world. He should not be excused for being an ignorant demagogue.