With the national argument focused firmly on gun control following the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, TX, President Joe Biden has joined the fray. He made a ridiculously, falsehood-filled speech in the immediate aftermath, once again revising his mind-numbing “deer in kevlar” quip.

On Memorial Day, Biden spoke to reporters and upped the ante. As RedState reported, he didn’t just talk about confiscating AR-15s, a completely unworkable, ineffective means of addressing mass shootings. Instead, he decided to rant about…9mm ammunition?

"The 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body." – President Joe Biden

Will the fact checkers be flagging his comment as misinformation? pic.twitter.com/fFPPf7Cv44

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) May 30, 2022

Biden’s full quote on .22 vs 9mm ammo:

"The .22 caliber bullet will lodge in the lungs and we can get it out. A 9 mm bullet blows the lung out of the body. The idea of a high caliber weapon, there is no rationale for it in terms of self-protection, hunting."

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) May 30, 2022

As my colleague, Nick Arama, pointed out, the 9mm cartridge is the most popular in the world, used in a nearly uncountable number of pistols and pistol-caliber carbines. It is renowned for its combination of manageable recoil, good ballistics, and decent stopping power.

But to be clear, it is nowhere near the most powerful pistol cartridge out there. There’s a reason the US military used .45 ACP for decades as a standard issue in sidearms. Past that, you’ve got various magnum-caliber cartridges all the way up to .50 AE. It’s not all about pure size either. FN 5.7 is a small caliber traveling extremely fast, meant to defeat body armor. I could keep going.

The point is that it’s incredibly nonsensical for Biden to come and start rambling about 9mm rounds as if they are anything more than the standard fare for firearm ammunition. As to his assertion that it “blows the lung out of the body,” that’s just blatantly false. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be shot by any type of bullet, but a 9mm is way down on the list in terms of pure lethality.

Moving past that, Biden’s suggestion that all you need is a .22 for self-defense is so ignorant that it’d make more sense if he were just lying for effect. In this case, though, I actually believe he’s just that stupid.

A .22, whatever you think of it, is a terrible self-defense round. It lacks the ballistics and mass to do much of anything to a determined attacker. The only reason you’d ever carry a .22 pistol for self-defense is if you are physically unable to rack the slide on a 9mm (i.e., my wife). There is not a single government official who is carrying a gun for protection of one’s self or another that is chambered in .22. None of Biden’s Secret Service detail uses the round, again, because it’s just not good for self-defense.

Yet, the President of the United States is actually suggesting people should not be allowed to have 9mm rounds and that they should instead use a .22? That’s one of the most asinine, ignorant things about guns I’ve ever heard a president say, and that’s saying something.

This man is a complete invalid. If he’s not lying, he’s showing that he’s just a complete idiot. This is not the kind of person whom you can engage in good faith in regards to guns, and Republicans shouldn’t try. Do not give these people an inch, because they don’t plan to stop until you actually can’t shoot anything but a .22.