During a gun control announcement on Thursday, President Joe Biden referred to the Glock, a popular handgun available in the civilian market, as a “weapon of war” and said he doesn’t see why such a firearm should be allowed to be purchased.
Biden began his remarks at a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force meeting by reflecting on the recent shooting deaths of NYPD officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera.
“I’ve spoken to their families, and — and their loss for the city is also a loss for the nation,” Biden said. “You know, the future is cut short by a man with a stolen Glock with 40 rounds — a magazine with 40 rounds. And it’s really a weapon of war.
“One of the things I was proudest of years ago, when I was in the Senate — I was able to get these weapons and the size of magazines outlawed,” Biden added. “That got changed. It got overruled. But I don’t see any rationale to why there should be such a weapon able to be purchased. It doesn’t violate anybody’s Second Amendment rights to deny that. But anyway, their futures were cut short by a man with a stolen Glock and that 40-round magazine.”
Lashawn McNeil, the man accused of fatally shooting Mora and Rivera, had reportedly been arguing with his mother when he reportedly began firing with a Glock 45 handgun with a 40-round drum magazine.
A 2020 survey found multiple Glock models, including the Glock 45, to be among the 15 most popular handguns sold in the state of Alabama. GunSource also reported the Glock 45 among its 15 most popular firearms sold.
McNeil had a past gun charge in North Carolina, a charge for assault on a police officer in Pennsylvania and a felony narcotics charge in New York. He was on probation at the time of the shooting, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms.
New York state law also prohibits possession of a firearm magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds.
Following his remarks about the Glock handgun, Biden went on to call for new gun control measures.
Biden said new gun control efforts would include regulating the sale of “ghost guns” and providing more prosecutorial resources to stop guns from being trafficked across state lines.
“We talk like there’s no amendment that’s absolute. When the amendment was passed, it didn’t say anybody can own a gun and any kind of gun and any kind of weapon,” Biden also said. “You couldn’t buy a cannon in — when the — this — this amendment was passed. And so, no reason why you should be able to buy certain assault weapons.”
Biden has repeatedly claimed individuals could not own cannons around the time period the Second Amendment was passed. In May 2020, the fact-checking resource PolitiFact rated Biden’s claims about owning cannons “false” and noted instances of private ownership of cannons during the time period, including by American privateers who operated privately-owned vessels with privately-owned cannons to attack other nations’ ships for profit. Biden repeated that claim in June 2021, when he said citizens would need F-15 fighter jets and nuclear weapons to challenge the U.S. government by force.
Biden said he’s also calling for increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the U.S. Marshals offices.
