In a Facebook town hall hosted by Parents magazine, vice president Joe Biden responded to a woman concerned that bans on various weapons may make law-abiding citizens more susceptible to criminals with the following advice: “If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barreled shotgun.” “You don’t need an AR-15, it’s harder to aim, it’s harder to use,” he stressed.


Biden indicated that he has given his own wife the same advice. “I said, ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,’” he said, and urged viewers, in closing, “Buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun!”


Biden previously voiced his affinity for shotguns in a January 24 Google Plus “fireside hangout,” insisting that they are more accurate than assault weapons. Shotguns, he said, “will keep you a lot safer — a double-barreled shotgun — than an assault weapon in somebody’s hand who doesn’t know how to use it, even one who does know how to use it.”

Biden owns a Beretta pistol. He reassured an audience during the 2008 campaign that President Obama would not infringe on the rights of gun owners, telling the crowd, “Barack Obama ain’t takin’ my shotgun, so don’t buy that malarky. . . I got two, and if [Obama] tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem!”


The Obama administration, per recommendations provided by a task force led by Biden, is currently pushing several gun-control measures, including a ban on semi-automatic weapons and universal background checks.