Help for the Innumerate: Here Are A Few Important Numbers for Joe Biden

By
Larry Keane
-
48

President Joe Biden is, again, telling his donor class that he’s committed to violating his oath of office and will continue to seek to ban AR-15s – or modern sporting rifles (MSRs). It’s not the first time, but he continues to show his ignorance of firearms in general and contempt for the rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, which he swore to uphold and defend.

President Biden spoke to the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner and said, “Who in God’s name needs a weapon with 100 rounds in the chamber? That weapon’s only meant for one thing… to kill people.”

He added that he was in the U.S. Senate when the federal government banned the sale of MSRs from 1994-2004, a law that was signed by President Bill Clinton and expired under President George W. Bush. He said if he gets his way, he’d do it all over again.

“As long as I’m in office I’m not going to stop until we get it done again,” President Biden said.

From his remarks, it seems he mistakenly believes there are “weapons with 100 rounds in the chamber.” The shockingly uninformed statement wasn’t the most ignorant statement of the day. President Biden transitioned to speak of the horrors Israelis suffered during the Hamas terrorist attack, failing to connect the fact that Israeli citizens live under the type of gun control that President Biden wants for America – one that left them unable to defend themselves from terror attacks.

“Weapons with 100 rounds in the chamber” don’t exist, but here are the numbers that matter.

1,400. That’s the low-end estimate of the number of Israelis killed when Hamas launched surprise attacks from the air, sea and breaking through the security fences that separate Gaza and Israel. Most of those killed were civilians who were brutally murdered in the most barbaric ways.

Concert-goers were mowed down by the hundreds at a desert music festival. Entire families were slaughtered in their homes. Bodies of parents and children were found bound and bearing the marks of torture as they were killed in front of one another. Infants were reported decapitated. The brutality of the attacks bore resemblance to those of ISIS and some reports noted that ISIS flags were recovered at the scene of the unprovoked attacks.

Hamas’ brutal attacks have no excuse nor equivocation. However, President Biden didn’t acknowledge that there is no right to keep and bear arms in Israel. That right is uniquely American and had that right to arms existed and provided for a means of self-defense, that figure would be much lower.

30. That’s the number of Americans who perished in Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel. Hamas doesn’t just bear hatred for their neighboring state of Israel and the Jewish people. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken addressed the world alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said of the murderous attacks, “No country can or would tolerate the slaughter of its citizens – or simply return to the conditions that allowed it to take place. Israel has the right – indeed, the obligation – to defend itself and to ensure that this never happens again.”

Courtesy VOA

That commitment to preserving the lives for citizens applies to Americans too. Ensuring Americans at home aren’t left defenseless by respecting the right to keep and bear arms is paramount to that security.

199. That’s the number of hostages Hamas took when they launched their attacks against Israel. These are women and children. They are the elderly. Some families are sharing their grief, frustrations and fear. Hamas is releasing hostage videos, driving further anxiety for the hostages’ safety.

Hamas is attempting to use those hostages as bargaining chips is cruel and twisted game of brinksmanship. That includes hostages of other nationalities, including citizens of Thailand, Germany and other countries that have reported citizens as missing. Israelis with dual U.S. citizenship are among those hostages. Hamas bizarrely refers to them as “guests,” much like Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did to those he held before the Iraq War was launched.

216. This is a number that hits closer to home because it is the number of illegal border crossers, and a U.S. citizen, caught at the U.S. southern border whose identities matched those listed on the Terrorist Screening Dataset and apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) as of July 2023. There were 100 apprehended in CY 22. The number found to be on the Terror Watchlist is growing.

Illegal immigrants wait along a border wall Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, after crossing from Mexico near Yuma, Ariz. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Here’s another series of numbers. Four Iranians have been arrested at the southern border since Oct. 1. In the first two weeks of October, the CBP told Fox News that agents have apprehended more than 30 Iranians, nearly 60 Syrians, 35 Pakistanis, more than 100 Russians, 285 Afghans and nearly 2,000 Chinese migrants at the southern border.

24.4 million. That’s the number of MSRs – AR-15 style rifles and AK-style rifles – that have been produced in the United States since 1990. That number doesn’t include rifles made for the military. More recent updates are expected soon, but this figure shows the MSR remains the most-popular selling centerfire semiautomatic rifle in the United States today.

Oregon gun store counter assault rifle AR-15
Firearms are displayed at a gun shop in Salem, Oregon. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, File)

There are more MSRs in circulation today than there are Ford F-150s trucks on the road. By any figure, that’s a firearm that’s commonly-owned and commonly-used. They are “arms” protected by the Second Amendment because they are chosen by the People.

Nine. That’s the next figure President Biden chooses to ignore. That’s the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court – the same number that weighed in on the landmark Heller, McDonald and now Bruen decisions.

Justice Clarence Thomas. AP.

Those decisions are crucial for the firearm industry and gun owners because Heller held that the Second Amendment is a right of individual Americans to keep and bear arms, just like the First and Fourth Amendment. It disposed of the notion that the Second Amendment was a collective right of the government to raise militias. McDonald held that state and local governments couldn’t ignore Second Amendment rights because of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

Bruen held that states couldn’t deprive law abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights by attempting to employ an “interest-balancing test.” That was previously rejected in the Heller decision but specifically rejected by Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote in the majority opinion that the text, history and tradition was how courts must interpret the Second Amendment.

Two. That’s the final number. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, “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.” That’s a right endowed upon Americans by their Creator, not granted and plucked away by the whims of a government.

Joe Biden Angry
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

When President Biden swore his oath of office, that meant he swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s the whole Constitution, not just the parts he likes. At a time when America is reminded that wolves prowl at the gates and life and liberty must be defended against terrorists, President Biden should not be calling for disarming Americans.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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48 COMMENTS

  2. “𝗔̲𝘀̲ ̲𝗹̲𝗼̲𝗻̲𝗴̲ ̲𝗮̲𝘀̲ ̲𝗜̲’̲𝗺̲ ̲𝗶̲𝗻̲ ̲𝗼̲𝗳̲𝗳̲𝗶̲𝗰̲𝗲̲ I’m not going to stop until we get it done again,”

    Ladies and gentlemen, we have a solution to Biden.

  3. I wants me one of those 100 rounds in a chamber guns. Lets see, according to Joe for 5.56 there are 8 bullets per round so with 100 rounds in the chamber the kevlar vests on the deer will not do much good for them.

    • With 100 rounds in the chamber I am going to need a magazine with at least 1500 rounds. And maybe a cart to drag the thing around.

  4. No news yet on shortages of Lake City 5.56? I read about an order to stop sales to civilians not sure if this is for shortages or a FJB angle to put in more restrictions. What ever happened with the ban on lead mining during the last communist (BHO)? It takes alot of lead to fill that 100 round chamber.

    • The lead game goes to China. The good ole US of A closed down the last lead smelting plant in Missouri 15? years ago.

      • “The lead game goes to China.”

        And Mexico. A byproduct of silver mining is lead…

  5. Democrats are the real threat to national security. They’ve done nothing other than weaken this country since the Puppet moved into the White House. It’s either ineptness, intentional, or some combination of the two. One thing’s for sure, they aren’t looking out for American citizens.

    Just today, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that inflation remains too high and that bringing it down to the Fed’s target level will likely require a slower-growing economy and job market.

    The strategy to fix the Democrats love affair with printing money is to intentionally slow the economy. They knew it would come to that as soon as they began signing off on the big spending bills. They lied, saying we wouldn’t have inflation. They didn’t care because they don’t care about the average American citizen. They’re only in it for themselves and the ruling class. They continue to fool Democrat voters with their propaganda as they laugh at them during their strategy sessions. And here they are tossing out money left and right to all sides of global conflicts. They’re borrowing every cent of it while continuing to fuel inflation.

  6. Biden is nothing more than a ‘Manchurian Candidate’ being controlled by those behind the curtain. Regardless of whether Dementia Joe is in the Oval Office or not. The attacks on the 2nd Amendment will not cease. Until ‘We the People’ put an end to them. There will always be those in power in D.C. Both in Congress/Senate, as well as the faceless/nameless bureaucrats behind the scenes and all those in control of Liberal/Progressive states. Until the ideology and those who support it are eliminated. As was done by the Founding Patriots. No amount of pissing and moaning will change anything. Today is the 242nd anniversary of the defeat of the British at Yorktown. Virtually ending over 6 years of hard fought war to secure the freedoms and liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights, 10 years later. Rights that were entrusted to each generation to protect and defend, against all enemies both foreign and domestic. Will this generation be remembered as the one that failed in it’s duty to do so. Each must choose and sacrifices will be made. either as a subject of governmental will or as free citizens in control of the government and the destiny of themselves and their descendants. As was done 242 years ago. Even if you choose not to decide…You have still made a choice.

      • Been saying that for a long time now on this site and others. Lots of whining, pissing and moaning. By those whose Rights are being violated. Not much else. It’s as if they expect someone else to do their fighting.

    • That’s disrespectful to Manchurian Candidates. They are fully functioning, but brainwashed, people.

    • There has been no Freedom since 40acres and a mule would not support the family.
      I want a new, cant afford one right now, I’ll get a loan. And so our Freedom was given to a bank because ,,,,, .

  7. No natural, civil, or human right is absolute. It is up to government to determine which and how many firearms “the people” are allowed to possess as a check against rogue, tyrannical government. “The founders” were pretty clear about that. Indeed, the 14th Amendment was declared applicable to the used to be “States”, thus enforcing the natural rule that “the people serve the interests of the central committee/government. Even the founders acknowledged that the natural condition of mankind is a quest for a ruling class to control and suppress the inherent selfishness of individuals.

    Government of the people, by the people, for the people results in the abject chaos of essentially undesirables, often identified as “a basket of deplorables”. The fantasy that the power of government stems from the power of individuals is simply delusion writ large. This nation, and the world at large, is too complicated to permit people to govern themselves. A pervasive and enlightened exercise of government by the best qualified persons available is the only organized method of ensuring the self-centered appetites of “the mobs” are not allowed to supersede the organizing capability of a powerful and pervasive government of the best and brightest among us. And, if you disagree, you are just evil, wicked, mean, bad, and nasty. I have spoken, so let it be written, so let it be done.

  9. The problem? Typical Trump hating RINOs blocking what should have been a no brainer vote for a new house leader. IMO the Trump hating RINOs and the democRats siding with hamas are from the same cut of cloth…Stupid is running the show.

    • Virgin olive oil man, your forgetting about that.
      If we let the Hamas take over we will be importing more goat cheese. Goat cheese ain’t all that bad but Wisconsin objects.

  12. Larry Keane would have been loved by Hitler or Trump. His fear mongering and distortions of the truth about immigrants crossing the border as rabid terrorists is right out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf or Herr Drumpf’s (the Donald’s) recent racist tirade against immigrants to his foaming at the mouth jackbooted base. Its all music to their ears. What’s next Keene, gas chambers or a night of chrystal against immigrants and their legitimate businesses??????

    Trying to claim that citizens could have thwarted over 2,000 heavily armed and well trained terrorists who even overwhelmed police departments and annihilated them is warped far right gun propaganda at its craziest.

    And any sane person who is not full of hate and venum for Biden as Keane is knows damn well Biden meant high capacity weapons even though he said “chamber” instead of magazine.

    Try again Keaner weener, fooling the ignorant hillbillies is easy but not so much when it comes to fooling any educated and sane person.

  15. “… history and tradition was how courts must interpret the Second Amendment.”

    HISTORY OF THE US SECOND AMMENDMENT.
    Dates back to at least Alfred the Great, King of England. (900 AD period) His army was not large enough to protect all the coastal settlements of England from Viking raids. He ordered his subjects to arm themselves.
    Much later the long bow was the main English military weapon. When a son turned 14 his father, by law, was ordered to give him a bow and arrows.
    From the preamble to the English Bill of Rights, 1689. (Compares to the US Declaration of Independence)
    SELECTED QUOTES:
    Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of divers evil counsellors, judges and ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion and the laws and liberties of this kingdom;
    By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws and the execution of laws without consent of Parliament;
    By causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and employed contrary to law;
    That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;
    One of the RIGHTS listed:
    That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;
    END QUOTES.
    In “Commentries On The Laws Of England” Blackstone remarks that the Bill of Rights gives the population the means to revolt.
    The English colonists in North America lived under English law so they individually had a ‘right’ to arms, “as allowed by law”. Parliment could change that ‘right’ as they saw fit.
    The US version:
    “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.”
    Note the last four words in each ‘right’.
    This was not a new ‘right’ but a strengthened affirmation of a ‘right’ which existed long before the US Revolution, with no mention of religion, or of rich or poor ‘condition’).
    Yale.edu has the entire English document, along with the Athenian Constitution and many others. At one point in time in Athens in order to be eligible to vote, you had to own a ‘military weapon’.

    • “… history and tradition was how courts must interpret the Second Amendment.”

      Doesn’t my right to life trump your right to take my life through vigilantism (judge, jury, executioner)?

      Besides, the SC just issued an opinion that the ATF, regardless of text, history, and tradition, has legal power to declare firearm parts to be actual firearms; Bruen seems to have hit an ill-defined wall. So, while Bruen appears to put an end to much gun control, the SC says text, history, and tradition is not absolute. More legal entertainment lies ahead.

      • “Doesn’t my right to life trump your right to take my life through vigilantism (judge, jury, executioner)?”

        You’re forgetting about the imaginary “Right to feel safe.”… 🙁

        • “You’re forgetting about the imaginary “Right to feel safe.”… 🙁”

          Yeah, that, there, too. But, if I keep my eyes closed, and can’t see that I am not safe, feeling safe is just as good. If I cannot “see” unsafe, it cannot see me.

  16. @Tombstone Gabby
    “I stopped reading after the first two lines. Drivel!”

    It’s a risk, I know; sarcasm, mockery, ridicule is not for everyone.

    Free money!
    Free love!
    Free Willy!
    Viva Max!
    Viva Zapata!
    Viva Las Vegas!
    Excelsior!

    • Enjoying the show. Mixed it a little strong tonight, Sam?

      *skol*

      • I can testify, way back when I was drinking heavily, hands-down, some of my funniest stuff was written when I was borderline minuets to passing out drunk… 🙁

        • “….some of my funniest stuff was written when I was borderline minuets to passing out drunk…”

          Drunk, or not, I’m still trying to figger out how to be funny.

          ‘what did delaware?
          -new jersey’

          waddah you think?

      • “Mixed it a little strong tonight, Sam?”
        *skol*

        Apparently, but after two samples, everything seemed to be normal, slower, but normal.

    • “Don’t quit your day job.”

      OK, OK, how ’bout this….’What did Tennessee?”

      ‘The same thing Arkansas.’

      • OK, OK, how ’bout this….’What did Tennessee?”

        ‘The same thing Arkansas.’

        Actually, a slight, make that a ‘very’ slight, improvement.

        • “Actually, a slight, make that a ‘very’ slight, improvement.”

          Forward is better ‘n backward. I’ll take it.

Comments are closed.