Biden scraps with auto worker over guns

From Detroit, Michigan — On a day in which he pressed the case on the campaign trail for action by Congress on gun controls, former Vice President Joe Biden got in a heated exchange at a Detroit automobile plant with a worker who accused him of planning to take away firearms from Americans, a charge Biden sternly denied as disinformation from his opponents.

The unplanned debate occurred as Biden toured a Fiat Chrysler assembly line, touting his work with President Barack Obama to help save auto jobs after the Wall Street Collapse of 2008.

Biden was greeting workers in hard hats, when one man - with cell phone cameras rolling all around him - buttonholed the Democratic Party front runner, asking how he could get union votes when he is for gun controls.

"You are actively trying to diminish our Second Amendment rights," the man said, drawing a swift rebuke from Biden.

"You're full of shit," Biden said. "I support the Second Amendment."

In the encounter, the auto worker referred to Biden's endorsement by Beto O'Rourke, the former Texas Congressman who has championed tough gun measures - but Biden has never embraced O'Rourke's call to confiscate weapons.

During the primary campaign, Biden has routinely made gun control a central theme of his campaign stops, arguing for stricter background checks, like ending private sales without background checks. a

Biden has also supported ending what's known as the Charleston loophole, which allows a gun purchase to go through after three days, even if the background check has not been completed by law enforcement.

"Vice President Joe Biden's support for gun violence prevention has never wavered," said the Newtown Action Alliance, a group formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

"He has a long history of supporting gun control measures and fighting the NRA even when it was not popular for Democrats to do so," the group added on Tuesday.