PRESIDENT Joe Biden mocked the Second Amendment on Wednesday and said people who support the right to bear arms "need nuclear weapons" to take on the United States government.

The president commented on the Second Amendment as he unveiled a "zero tolerance" policy with firearms dealers who break federal laws, blamed the rising crime rate across the US on guns, and said states are allowed to use $350billion in Covid funding to hire more cops.



Speaking at the White House in the late afternoon, Biden said: "The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn’t buy a canon.

"Those who say the 'blood of patriots,' you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government. Well, the tree of liberty has not been watered with the blood of patriots.

"What’s happened is that there have never been, if you want to, think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons."

Biden continued: "The point is that there has always been the ability to limit — rationally limit the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it."

"We're not changing the Constitution. We're enforcing it," he added.

The Second Amendment, which 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" — is one of the most commonly cited Amendments in the US.

This Amendment has been interpreted as the right to have a military and as the right for every American to own a gun, regardless of circumstances.



Meanwhile, as Biden spoke alongside Attorney General Merrick Garland about the administration’s new Gun Crime Prevention Strategy, Biden announced a warning to gun dealers.

"We know that if there is a strict enforcement of background checks, then fewer guns get into the hands of criminals," the president said.

"If you willfully sell a gun to someone who's prohibited from possessing it, if you willfully fail to run a background check, if you willfully falsify a record … my message to you is this.

"We'll find you and we will seek your license to sell guns."

Biden insisted his administration will make it impossible to "sell death and mayhem on our streets" and slammed the country's gun problem as an "outrage" that needs to end.

AG Garland also warned that "gun dealers that break the rules" will be held accountable for their actions."


He noted that The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will start proceedings to take away the licenses of dealers that "willfully violate the law by failing to conduct required background checks, falsifying records."

In addition to the crack-down on gun sales, Biden and Garlandon explained the administration plans to give more support to police departments.

Biden, who unveiled a series of executive orders aimed at reducing the recent violence as he renews calls from Congress to pass gun reform legislation, explained Wednesday that crime is known to rise during the summer months.

"As we emerge from this pandemic, with the country opening back up again, the traditional summer spike may be more pronounced than it usually would be," he added.

Ahead of Biden's announcement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday: "Yes, there need to be reforms of police systems across the country. The president is a firm believer in that."


"But there are also steps he can take as president of the United States to help address and hopefully reduce that crime. 

"A big part of that, in his view, is putting in place gun safety measures … using the bully pulpit but also using levers at his disposal as president," she added. 

Before the speech, Biden was criticized by Second Amendment lovers who claim that the surge in crime has no link to guns. 

"It is the height of hypocrisy for Joe Biden to demonize guns, gun dealers, and gun owners,” Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, told the Washington Examiner. 

“For the past year, the anti-gun Left looked the other way when rioters were destroying cities and murdering civilians and cops.

"Not only that, the anti-gun Left began releasing criminals early from jail and started defunding the police in several big cities," he added.  

“The police were vilified so badly that they began retiring early in droves. Others took extended time off work or suffered from the 'blue flu.’”

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene also hit out at Biden on Twitter on Wednesday. 

“Crime is exploding in Democrat-run cities … this is 100% the result of their left-wing policies of defunding the police, backing BLM / ANTIFA, destroying families, and coddling of criminals!” she wrote. 

Biden has shown opposition to the “Defund the Police” movement and had a record of being tough on crime when he was a senator. 

Yet he is also trying to boost progressive’s efforts to reform policing. 

One of his orders for Wednesday looks set to anger those calling for funding to be withdrawn from police departments, however. 

Under the $1.9million Covid relief package he signed in March, there is now new federal funding available for municipal governments to keep more police officers on the streets. 

This will allow them to hire more law enforcement, even if it raises the total number to above pre-pandemic levels, according to DailyMail.com. 

It comes amid a crime surge and fears for a violent summer fueled by the pandemic that has caused economic hardship, displacement, and anxiety. 

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday that nationwide there has been a double-digit increase in murder and violent crime. 

“It is staggering. It is sobering,” she said at a violent-crime forum held by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum. 

“And it’s something that the DOJ is committed to doing all we can to reverse what are profoundly troubling trends.”

She added that to tackle the violence, the Justice Department would launch strike forces in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. 

The forces would target violent crime caused by illegal gun trafficking. 

Former President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General Bill Barr announced a similar approach last summer. 

He blamed the spike in crime last year on the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd protests. 

Biden’s announcement on Wednesday adds to a half-dozen executive actions on gun control he introduced in April following a wave of mass shootings. 

They included a crack down on “ghost guns,” homemade firearms that lack serial numbers used to trace them and that are often purchased without a background check.

Ahead of the remarks, Biden is scheduled to meet with AG Garland as well as the Democratic mayors of Baltimore and Miami-Dade County, the Republican mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota; the Democratic attorney general of New Jersey; the police chief in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and community activists. 

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