During a Monday appearance on NBC’s “Today,” former Vice President Joe Biden shared his thoughts on what he believes shouldn’t have taken place during the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
In the segment, Biden suggested that Stephen Willeford shouldn’t have been able to own the firearm he used to wound Devin Kelley, the gunman responsible for killing 26 and injuring 20 earlier this month at the First Baptist Church.
In fact, it was just as Kelley was fleeing the church that Willeford — an experienced hunter — fired his AR-15 rifle at Kelley, wounding him.
As reported by The Western Journal, Kelley had previously opened fire on civilians inside the church.
During a question and answer segment, a woman in the “Today” crowd asked Biden for his take on gun control in the wake of the fatal massacre.
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“How do you justify the Democratic (Party’s) view on gun control when the shooter was stopped by a man who was legally licensed to carry a gun?” the woman asked.
Biden responded by re-positioning the focus on the specific firearm model Willeford used.
“Well, first of all, the kind of gun being carried he shouldn’t be carrying,” Biden said. “I wrote the last serious gun control law that was written and was law for 10 years, and it outlawed assault weapons and it outlawed weapons with magazines that had a whole lot of bullets and so you can kill a whole lot of people a lot more quickly.”
The former vice president was referencing the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act which he helped push through the Senate in 1994, as reported by CNN.
The ban, which expired in 2004, prevented civilian ownership of firearms such as the AR-15.
“Number two, it’s just rational to say certain people shouldn’t have guns,” Biden continued.
He then conceded that there are some situations that can’t be prevented, regardless of the extensive measures put in place to stop them.
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“Now the fact that some people with guns are legally able to acquire a gun and they turn out to be crazy after the fact, that’s life,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about that.”
The opposition to Biden’s statement was apparent on Twitter.
This isn’t Biden’s first time finding himself in hot water after making seemingly off-the-cuff statements regarding gun control.
During a town hall meeting in 2013, Biden advised citizens to purchase a double-barreled shotgun for home defense, rather than a semi-automatic rifle.
“If you want to protect yourself get a double-barreled shotgun, have the shells of a 12-gauge shotgun, and I promise you,” Biden explained. “As I told my wife … I said, Jill, if there’s ever a problem just walk out on the balcony here … put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house.”
As CNN reported, an online firestorm erupted in the wake of Biden’s remarks, which many suggested were irresponsible.
“So when the cops come to arrest me for shooting off the porch, I can tell ’em Joe said it’s ok,” one online user wrote.
“The scariest part about his whole statement is that he is encouraging people to blindly fire off rounds at unknown noises and in unknown directions,” another user reportedly said.
Had Willeford had a double-barreled shotgun or any other weapon on Nov. 5, his heroic effort may have ended very differently.
According to The Federalist, Willeford told political commentator Stephen Crowder in a Nov. 6 interview, “If I had run out of the house with a pistol and faced a bulletproof vest and Kevlar and helmets, it might have been futile. I ran out with an AR-15 and that’s what he was shooting the place up with.”
“I hate to politicize that, but that’s reality.”