Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested on Monday that it was "absolutely mindless" the United States doesn't ban firearms and magazines that hold "multiple bullets."
"The idea that we don’t have elimination of assault type weapons, magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them," the Democratic frontrunner told reporters. "It’s absolutely mindless. It’s no violation of the Second Amendment. It’s just a bow of special interests of the gun manufacturers and the NRA."
Joe Biden makes the most extreme gun-control push of all the 2020 Democrat presidential candidates:
Biden calls for banning "magazines that can hold multiple bullets in them"
All magazines hold "multiple bullets," that's the point
This call from Biden would ban most handguns pic.twitter.com/4iQkalBxVa
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 2, 2019
Biden didn't specify what he meant by "multiple bullets," but the vast majority of firearms hold multiple bullets themselves, including revolvers, which don't have magazines. Without specifying a number, Biden's suggestion could be all magazines should be banned because magazines are meant to hold multiple bullets.
In earlier comments, Biden criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R.) and President Donald Trump for their response to the recent mass shooting in Odessa, where seven people were killed.
"It’s about time the president got out of this state of denial on two critical things and they both came ahead this weekend," Biden said. "On dealing with firearms, it is irrational with—all due respect for the governor of Texas—on the very day you see a mass shooting and we’re talking about loosening access to have guns, being able to take them to places of worship, store it in school, and it’s absolutely irrational. It’s all about special interests and it has to stop."
Biden was referencing laws that Texas passed earlier in the year, which went into effect hours after the shooting. The new laws loosen gun restrictions and allow individuals to store guns and firearms in their locked vehicle on school grounds, ban landlords from prohibiting tenants from lawfully possessing firearms, and numerous other provisions.
In the race to become the Democratic nominee, Biden has moved to the left on the issue of guns. Earlier this month, Biden said the Second Amendment isn't "absolute," mocked the idea that Americans could fight back against a tyrannical government, and came out in favor of a gun buyback.