President Biden now has more than a dozen state attorneys general breathing down his neck. They put the president on notice on Wednesday with a letter criticizing his State of the Union Address because it called for an “unconstitutional” ban on “assault weapons.”
The letter campaign is being led by Montana AG Austin Knudsen.
Knudsen has been joined by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
They blasted Biden for his “irresponsible and unconstitutional demand that Congress ban firearms commonly used by law-abiding Americans for self-defense.”
And they put the president on notice saying, “with every tool at our disposal, we will oppose your attempt to trample on Americans’ fundamental right to defend themselves with guns.”
The letter also says that politicians like Biden are using misleading labels like “assault weapon” to scare the American people. They noted that Biden’s definition of “assault weapons” is extremely broad, encompassing all semiautomatic weapons. These are the most common and effective self-defense weapons used today. Over 100 million Americans defend their homes and families with them.
Americans possess an estimated 45 million lawfully owned semiautomatic rifles in the United States.
The attorneys general said that when Americans hear that the president is coming after their “assault weapons,” they must brace themselves for an attack on “ordinary, safe, and highly effective weapons commonly used for self and home defense.”
The letter also noted that according to the CDC, Americans use guns to protect themselves and their families up to 3 million times per year, if not more.
The letter ended by declaring that the right to keep and bear arms is one of the most fundamental and deeply rooted liberties in our constitutional tradition.
It will be interesting to see how Biden responds.
