You know, we've proven we don't have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy. We're doing both. But powerful forces want… - Joe Biden

I spent my career as a senator and as Vice President working to pass commonsense gun laws. We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.<p>The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong. What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick. And the gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit.<p>For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.

A better man might have handled the situation with more grace than I did. A better man would have been able to separate his personal life from his career.

But the idea — the idea that in the first quarter of the 20th century we’d have people come out of fields carrying torches, Nazi flags and banners, chanting the bile, accompanied by white supremacists, David Duke and his crowd.