This feature appears in the October ‘16 issue of NRA America’s 1st Freedom, one of the official journals of the National Rifle Association.
The Libertarian vice presidential candidate is sounding a lot like Democrat Hillary Clinton on the subject of guns.
Gun owners considering voting for a third party this November should take note of some recent statements made by Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld concerning firearms—and his gross lack of knowledge on the issue.
When asked during an interview by Revolt TV whether AR-15 rifles should be “available to people,” Weld—Gary Johnson’s running mate and the former governor of Massachusetts—showed not only his lack of knowledge on the subject, but also his willingness to spout off despite that immense lack of knowledge.
In truth, Weld sounds a lot like Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton—only even less informed on the important issues of guns and gun rights.“The five-shot rifle, that’s a standard military rifle; the problem is if you attach a clip to it so it can fire more shells and if you remove the pin so that it becomes an automatic weapon, and those are independent criminal offenses,” Weld said. “That is when they become, essentially, a weapon of mass destruction.”
It’s hard to even know where to start analyzing such a ridiculous statement, which didn’t answer the interviewer’s question, yet somehow seemed to equate the AR-15 with a weapon of mass destruction. But a few points come quickly to mind:
As Bob Owens at bearingarms.com pointed out, the last five-shot rifle issued to the United States military as a “standard military rifle” was the 1903 Springfield, adopted more than 100 years ago and phased out when the semi-automatic M1 Garand was standardized more than 75 years ago.
Modern military rifles use magazines, not clips; and the magazine is inserted into the gun, not attached to it.
These rifles Weld referred to do not have a metal pin that can easily be “removed” in order to turn them into an automatic weapon. Neither, of course, do AR-15s, which the original question addressed.
Perhaps worse than that gibberish is how Weld ended his answer, managing to demonize both rifles and handguns in one brief statement less than 30 seconds long.
“The problem with handguns is probably even worse than the problem of the AR-15s,” he concluded. We’re not sure what “problem” Weld might be referring to, or if he considers handgun ownership in general to be a “problem” since he didn’t elaborate on the topic.
Weld’s solution: Make sure people placed by faceless bureaucrats onto secret government lists—even if they’ve never been accused of any crime—are denied their Second Amendment-protected rights.
In truth, Weld sounds a lot like Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton—only even less informed on the important issues of guns and gun rights.
