President Joe Biden talks with reporters during a visit on Thanksgiving Day to the Nantucket Fire Department in Nantucket, Mass., Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
THE PRESIDENT: Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Look, the idea that we’re not enforcing red-flag laws, period, just based on knowledge, not on parents saying or a loved one saying you should arrest this person now for his own sake, is ridiculous.
We got one of the first red-flag laws in the state of Delaware, and my son Beau was the one enforcing it. And it made a lot of difference. It saves lives. So that’s number one.
Number two, the idea — the idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.
Q Can you do anything about gun laws during the lame duck, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to try.
Q What will you try and do?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.
Q During the lame duck?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to do it whenever I — I got to make that assessment as I get in and start counting the votes.
— President Joe Biden in Remarks by President Biden After Visiting With Local Firefighters
