John Kerry, self-proclaimed lifelong gun owner: No one should use an 'AR-16 with a long clip' to hunt

Speaking at Joe Biden campaign rally over the weekend, former secretary of state and supposed lifelong hunter and gun owner John Kerry asserted that no one should use an "AR-16 with a long clip" to hunt.

"You heard from Joe about the things he did with the NRA," Kerry said to the crowd of Biden supporters. "That took courage. Delaware is a tough state. I'm a hunter. I'm a gun owner. Been that all my life," he continued. "But I got news for you, there's not a veteran here who would take an AR-16 with a long clip to go out and shoot a deer or shoot anything. There is no business — Joe led the fight to get those things off the street."

Kerry likely meant to refer to the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and also confused a clip with a magazine, both surprising mistakes for a lifelong gun owner.

"Now we have a crowd that was willing to bring them back," Kerry continued. "And we saw what happened in Las Vegas and other places. We need a Joe Biden with the guts and the courage and the savvy to be able to do something that's reasonable about guns in our country."

Kerry again makes a mistake in claiming there was a "crowd that was willing to bring [AR-15s] back," since AR-15s were never fully banned.

He may be referring to the assault weapons ban inaugurated under President Bill Clinton in 1994, but that law simply placed restrictions on how many features could be added to the AR-15 and similar firearms. That ban was also lifted in 2004, well before the current gun debate in America ensued.

Responding to the gaffe, popular gun rights blog Bearing Arms called out Kerry for proceeding to demonize guns without knowing much about them.

"If you want a ban a gun, shouldn't you at least know what it's called? And why is it that so many 'lifelong gun owners' who love gun control talk about firearms like someone speaking a foreign language?" the article said.