Joe Biden: Texas Church Shooting Hero Shouldn’t Have Owned Gun-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Vice President Joe Biden said in November 2017 that the man who stopped the church shooter in Sutherland Springs, Texas, shouldn’t have been allowed to own an assault weapon.
The Truth:
Joe Biden gave a rambling answer when asked how he could justify the Democratic position on gun control given that the Sutherland Springs church shooter was topped by a man legally licensed to own a gun. Biden did not, however, say that the hero shouldn’t have been allowed to own a gun or assault weapon.
The exchange played out during a question-and-answer session during a Today show appearance on November 13, 2017. A young woman asked: How do you justify the Democratic view on gun control when the man who stopped the shooter was legally licensed to carry a gun? Biden responded:
Well, first of all, the kind of gun being carried, that the shooter was carrying, assault weapons are, uh — I wrote the last last serious gun control law written in 10 years. It outlawed assault weapons and it outlawed weapons with magazines that carry a whole lot of bullets and can kill people really quickly. Number 2, it’s just rational to say that certain people shouldn’t have guns. Now the fact that some people with guns are legally able to acquire them and they turn out to be crazy after the fact, that’s life. But we can save a lot of lives, we can stop tens of thousands of people from having guns who shouldn’t have guns.
When Joe Biden’s quote is viewed in its entirety, it becomes clear that he was referring to Sutherland Springs church shooter Devin Kelly — not the man who stopped him, former NRA instructor Stephen Willeford. Some versions of the quote have been selectively edited, however, to misconstrue Biden’s sentiments.
Joe Biden says that the man who stopped the Texas church shooter should not have been armed. pic.twitter.com/pY3hBHPHuX
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 14, 2017
But there’s no denying that Joe Biden’s comments on gun control were confusing. When he says “I wrote the last gun control law in 10 years,” he’s referring to a proposed 2013 assault weapons ban that was ultimately not approved by Congress. Yet, Biden talks about the bill as if it was signed into law, saying “It outlawed assault weapons and it outlawed weapons with magazines that carry a whole lot of bullets and can kill people really quickly,”
As he moves onto the second point, Biden shifts his focus to background checks for gun purchases. They were mandated under the 1993 Brady Bill. Biden seems to be defending the Democratic position that background checks can prevent bad actors — like the Sutherland Springs church shooter — from getting guns.
In the end, Joe Biden didn’t say that the man who stopped the Sutherland Springs church shooter shouldn’t have be allowed to own a gun. This rumor is similar to an earlier rumor that Joe Biden said no ordinary citizens care about their constitutional rights that was falsely attributed to Biden.