Biden Insists 2nd Amendment Isn’t Absolute: When it Was Passed ‘You Couldn’t Buy a Cannon’

President Joe Biden revealed that he has not yet started negotiations with Republicans on gun safety reform following the horrific school shooting last week in Uvalde, Texas. He also reiterated his stance that the 2nd Amendment was “not absolute.”

Biden spoke to reporters after he returned to the White House after his weekend visit to Uvalde, and was asked if he feels more motivated to get action on guns now following his visit to the grieving town.

“I’ve been pretty motivated all along,” he replied before offering thoughts on the people of Uvalde he had just met. “The folks who were victimized there and their families, they spent three hours and 40 minutes at least. They waited all that time and some came two hours early, and — and the pain is palpable, and I think a lot of this is unnecessary, so I’m going to continue to push and we’ll see how this works.”

When asked what specific change to gun safety reform he has been considering, Biden said that it was difficult to say as he has not “been negotiating with any of the Republicans yet, and I deliberately did not engage in a debate about that with any Republican” while he was visiting with the grieving community in Uvalde.

“I know that it makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds,” he continued. “I know what happened when we had rational action before,” in an apparent reference to the assault weapons ban that expired during the George W. Bush administration. “It did significantly cut down mass murders.”

“And, remember, the constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute,” he continued. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed and you couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons.”

“Those who — not many are saying it anymore but there was a while there where people were saying — you know, ‘the tree of liberty is water with the blood of patriots,'” (which was a reference to a Thomas Jefferson quote) and ‘what we have to do is take on the government when they are wrong. To do that you need an F-15, you need an Abrams tank I mean,” he added.

Though some 2A purists might feel like they need an F-15 fighter plane, Abrams tank, or even a fully-automatic assault rifle, they are all illegal to own under current regulations. Biden seems to suggest that the line of outlawed weaponry shift to include more weapons.

“So it’s just, I think things have gotten so bad, that everybody is getting more rational, about it, at least that’s my hope and prayer.”

Watch above via CNN.