Media

Doocy Asks WH Press Secretary If Admin Would Consider Handgun Ban

[Screenshot/Rumble/White House]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
Font Size:

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Tuesday on whether the administration will consider banning handguns.

“Canada is making it impossible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in that country. Would President Biden ever consider a similar restriction on handguns here?” Doocy asked.

“We’ll leave it up to other countries to set their policy on gun ownership,” Jean-Pierre said. “The president has made his position clear that the United States needs to act, as I just laid out. He supports a ban on sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and expanded background checks to keep guns out of dangerous hands. He does not support a ban on the sale of all handguns.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation to freeze the future sales and purchases of handguns and impose a “buy back” of military-style semi-automatic weapons Monday. The legislation further intends to limit all long gun magazines to hold no more than five rounds and ban the sale of “high-capacity” magazines. (RELATED: Rep. Kinzinger Says He Is ‘Open’ To An Assault Weapons Ban) 

“Today, we’re proposing some of the strongest measures in Canadian history to keep guns out of our communities and build a safer future for everyone,” Trudeau said in the press release.

Canada passed legislation in May 2020 banning over 1,500 types of firearms after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia that left 23 people dead.

President Joe Biden urged the federal government to “stand up to the gun lobby” in response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting that killed 19 children and 2 fourth-grade teachers.

“As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden asked Tuesday. “When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”

He touted his past attempts to pass “common sense gun reforms” and called for Congress to pass new gun legislation to create a “significant impact” on the number of mass shootings erupting throughout the country in a Wednesday address to the nation. He added that the Second Amendment is “not absolute” and therefore allows for limitations on gun ownership.

“The Second Amendment is not absolute. When it was passed you couldn’t own a cannon, you couldn’t own certain kinds of weapons. There’s always been limitations,” the president said. “These actions we’ve taken before, they save lives and they can do it again. The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy weapons of war designed and marketed to kill is I think just wrong. It just violates common sense.”