President Joe Biden‘s statement on Tuesday states that Americans are not allowed to personally own a flamethrower or a machine gun, but many claims that it is not true.
Biden’s Statement on Flamethrower and Machine Gun Ownership
President Joe Biden’s statement was heard during the wake of a massacre at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. He said it while delivering a plea for a renewed ban on semi-automatic assault weapons.
Biden’s statement said: “I’m a Second Amendment guy. I have two shotguns. My sons have shotguns. You know, but our states – you know, everybody assumes somehow the Second Amendment is absolute. You’re not authorized to go out and own – an automatic weapon. You’re not authorized to own a machine gun. You’re not allowed to own a flamethrower.”
Andrew Bates, the White House deputy press secretary said when asked for a comment about Biden’s statement: “His point is that almost everyone accepts that there are some weapons civilians should not be permitted to own, and that, as he is, you can be a Second Amendment supporter and also passionately believe in an assault weapons ban.”
READ ALSO: Biden Criticizes Republicans Over Social Security Stances He Once Held
Is Biden’s Statement True?
For most Americans, Biden’s statement is inaccurate since people are allowed to own and buy flamethrowers almost everywhere in the country and it is not restricted by federal firearms law and only one state bans ownership of them, CNN reported.
As long as the guns were legally registered and owned prior to May 19, 1986, people are allowed to own and buy fully automatic machine guns in more than two-thirds of states. According to official federal data, there were more than 700,000 legally registered machine guns in the US as of May 2021.
Contrary to Biden’s statement, owning a flamethrower is legal under federal law but is banned in Maryland, while owning a machine gun is generally legal in more than two-thirds of states, according to an analysis issued by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. It is not prohibited to own these guns as long it was legally owned prior to May 19, 1986, the day President Ronald Reagan signed a major gun law.
READ ALSO: Paxton Prevails in Lawsuit Against Biden Administration!
