Vice President Joe Biden wielded a military-style assault weapon (of war) in front of a group of children, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The following image, obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon, shows Biden wielded what appears to be bright yellow object resembling an "assault weapon." The photo was taken at the vice president’s annual summer kick-off party at the Naval Observatory. It is unclear if the weapon is loaded.
The shocking image is at odds with Biden’s support for a ban on "military-style assault weapons." In 2013, Biden told NPR that he "hasn’t given up" his pursuit of an "assault weapons," which is one of the most controversial aspects of the Democratic campaign to scale back Second Amendment rights. "Military-style assault weapons are—these are weapons of war," Biden said. "They don't belong in the street."
But apparently, they do belong in our backyards, and in full view of our nation’s children, who, we should note, represent the future. Equally perplexing is Biden’s choosing a rifle over his weapon of choice, the shotgun. In a 2013 interview with Field and Stream, Biden said:
Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door. Most people can handle a shotgun a hell of a lot better than they can a semiautomatic weapon in terms of both their aim and in terms of their ability to deter people coming. We can argue whether that’s true or not, but it is no argument that, for example, a shotgun could do the same job of protecting you. Now, granted, you can come back and say, "Well, a machine gun could do a better job of protecting me." No one’s arguing we should make machine guns legal.
Biden is the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.