Biden Quotes His Dad, 'The Single Worst Abuse of All Was the Abuse of Power,' in a Gun Speech CNN and the NRA Both Fact-Checked (June 16, 2023)

At a gun-control summit in West Hartford, Connecticut, President Joe Biden reached for one of his father’s sayings: “The single worst abuse of all was the abuse of power” [1].

He was talking about domestic violence. But the claims around that line did not hold up. Reviewing two weeks of Biden speeches, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale found that the president “made at least five false claims related to guns, a subject on which he has repeatedly been inaccurate during his presidency.” Two of those false claims, plus what Dale called “an exaggeration,” came in this speech [2].

The National Rifle Association agreed, which it said does not happen often. “It’s not often that NRA finds itself in agreement with CNN’s reporting about firearms,” its lobbying arm wrote [3].

The video above shows part of Biden’s June 16, 2023, remarks at the National Safer Communities Summit. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

”The Ultimate Abuse”

Biden was touting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the gun law he signed in 2022. “The law helps prevent domestic abusers from purchasing guns. I’m the guy that wrote the Violence Against Women Act,” he said [1].

“But I care deeply about it, because the ultimate abuse: the abuse of power,” Biden said, before quoting his father [1].

”Cannot Buy a Firearm, Period”

Biden said the law closed the “boyfriend loophole,” which let people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence against a dating partner keep buying guns. “So we finally can say that those convicted of domestic violence abuse against their girlfriend or boyfriend cannot buy a firearm, period,” he said [1].

The law he signed says otherwise. Its new ban on dating partners “shall not apply to any conviction of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence entered before the date of enactment of this Act” [4].

And a first-time offender “shall not be disqualified from shipping, transport, possession, receipt, or purchase of a firearm under this chapter if 5 years have elapsed from the later of the judgment of conviction or the completion of the person’s custodial or supervisory sentence,” as long as the person does not reoffend [4].

CNN called Biden’s line “an exaggeration,” noting that the five-year limit was “a concession demanded by Republicans” [2].

”The Last Administration Decided”

Biden also blamed President Donald Trump’s team for the gap. “They decided—the last administration decided not to impose this limitation on being able to own a weapon,” he said [1].

The fix took an act of Congress. The 2022 law amended the federal definition in Section 921(a) of title 18 to cover “a person who has a current or recent former dating relationship with the victim” [4].

”The First to Enforce”

In the state that passed the nation’s first red flag law, Biden gave the credit to his late son, Beau. The law’s money, he said, was helping states expand “red flag” laws, “as my son was the first to enforce when he was attorney general” [1].

CNN rated that false. Delaware “did not have a red flag law when Beau Biden was state attorney general from 2007 to 2015,” Dale wrote. Its law “was passed in 2018, three years after Beau Biden died of brain cancer.” And “Connecticut passed the first such state law in the country in 1999” [2].

CNN added two points in Biden’s favor: Beau Biden “had pushed for a similar bill” in 2013 that the state Senate rejected, and Biden had “previously said, correctly,” that Delaware’s law was named after his son [2].

The NRA wrote that Delaware “did not even have a red flag law to enforce” while Beau Biden was attorney general [3].

”Put a Pistol on a Brace”

Biden then described his crackdown on pistol stabilizing braces. “Put a pistol on a brace, and it makes—turns into a gun,” he said. “Makes them where you can have a higher caliber weapon—a higher caliber bullet coming out of that gun. It’s essentially turning it into a short-barreled rifle, which has been a weapon of choice by a number of mass shooters” [1].

CNN rated that false, too. “A pistol is, obviously, already a gun,” Dale wrote. He quoted gun-policy reporter Stephen Gutowski: “a pistol brace does not have any effect on the caliber of ammunition that a gun fires or anything about the basic functioning of the gun itself” [2].

By the Numbers

1999: the year Connecticut passed the nation’s first red flag law [2].
2018: the year Delaware passed its red flag law, named for Beau Biden [2].
2007 to 2015: Beau Biden’s years as Delaware attorney general [2].
5 years: after which a first-time dating-partner offender can buy a gun again under the 2022 law [4].
$230 million: what Biden said the law had provided for red flag tools [1].

What Happened Next

The brace rule did not survive the courts. Biden’s ATF published its final rule on stabilizing braces on Jan. 31, 2023 [5]. By 2026, “Several courts have enjoined, stayed, or vacated the final rule, which has rarely been in effect,” according to the Federal Register [6].

Trump’s ATF moved to erase it. On May 6, 2026, ATF proposed removing the rule. “Courts have found that ATF’s revisions in the 2023 final rule on the same topic violated the Administrative Procedure Act,” the notice said [6].

For how the speech ended, see HYGO News’ page on “God save the Queen, man”.