Sometimes they say the quiet part aloud and you should believe them when they tell you who they are. That may have been the case with President Joe Biden at a fundraiser in California on Tuesday evening. Uncle Joe appeared to go off the script yet again, no doubt sending his handlers into a panic and preparing for some damage control operations. He reiterated his support for a ban on “assault weapons,” specifically calling out AR-15 rifles. That’s nothing unusual for Biden and it’s one of his standard talking points. But then he seemed to be in the mood to elaborate a bit. He spoke about how he “loves these guys” who talk about the Second Amendment, the Tree of Liberty, etc. He went on to say that if you want to go “against the government… you need an F-16. You need something else than just an AR-15.” So… was that a threat, Joe? Or maybe a dare? (PJ Media)

Add this to the list of things you never wanted to hear your president say. Joe Biden (again) mocked Americans who stand on their Second Amendment rights to own AR-15s, sneering, “[if] you want to work against the government, you need an F-16.” Is that an observation or a veiled threat?

The Founding Fathers specifically insisted that the right to keep and bear arms — including arms used in warfare — was absolutely essential to guard against tyranny. “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States,” Founder Noah Webster reflected with satisfaction.

First of all, Biden’s interpretation of the Consitution is so out of whack that it’s hard to describe. The linked article from PJ Media offers a number of quotes from the Founders that prove the opposite of what he was saying. They offer quotes from Noah Webster, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, among others. Biden claims that the Second Amendment says there are “certain weapons you just can’t own,” listing cannons and machine guns as examples.

We can leave aside for the moment the fact that the Second Amendment is only 27 words long, making no mention of any specific weapons. (And many would argue that it could be improved if it were 13 words shorter.) Even a casual glance at the early history of the country will show you that the organizers of many militias and private security forces were civilians and they most certainly did own cannons. As for “machine guns,” Richard Gatling didn’t invent the Gatling gun until 1862. The first true machine gun, designed by Hiram Maxim, wouldn’t appear until 1884. So the founders had no concept of such things while drafting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Biden was just rambling nonsensically as usual.

It’s also highly dangerous for Biden to make references to the use of F-16s against Americans who disagree with his gun-banning impulses. That’s an obvious suggestion that military action could be taken. The military is never to be used against American citizens except in the most dire and extreme circumstances. Any such conflict would have to be handled by civilian law enforcement. But since Joe Biden finds himself in the position of Commander in Chief (God help us all), he seems to feel that he could deploy any level of force against dissenters who wanted to own a modestly powerful rifle.

That’s obviously not the case. Such an action would be forbidden in almost all circumstances by the Posse Comitatus Act. The sole exception would involve invoking the Insurrection Act, but at that point, the country would be pretty much toast anyway.

The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. The statute implements Congress’s authority under the Constitution to “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” It is the primary exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, under which federal military forces are generally barred from participating in civilian law enforcement activities.

It’s kind of odd that Biden made that comment in the midst of bragging about how he’s “a Second Amendment guy,” and that he “taught it for four years, six years in law school.” We can fact-check how much time Biden actually spent teaching at Widener University some other time. But for someone with a law degree who has supposedly taught constitutional law, wouldn’t you think he would know these things by now? Or does he completely lose touch with reality when he departs from the prepared scripts he’s given? I’ll leave that up to the observer to decide.

In any event, perhaps Biden should be reminded that there are literally millions of people out there who legally own and love AR-15-style rifles, along with all manner of other firearms, who break no laws and don’t plan to do so. Perhaps threatening them with fighter jets isn’t the best approach when compared to, I don’t know… an honest debate? Just saying…