Quotes of the Week: 'Buy A Shotgun'
Joe Biden took questions in an online town hall about firearm ownership.
Feb. 23, 2013— -- intro: Arizona conservatives booed Sen. John McCain, while Joe Biden provided some unlikely advice at an online townhall, telling people to "buy a shotgun." Click through to see the quotes that made news this week.
quicklist: 1title: 'Buy a Shotgun'text: Vice President Joe Biden, the owner of two shotguns, has often used his firearm ownership in debates of the practicality of assault weapons. In a particularly offbeat moment during an online town hall, where Biden was taking questions on gun control, he explained an imaginary scenario where trouble would come to his Delaware home:
"I said, 'Jill, if there's ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out and put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,'" he said.
Continuing the trope, Biden stated that it would be easier to fend off an intruder with a shotgun than with the civilian variant of an M-16 assault rifle.
"You don't need an AR-15," he said. "It's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself."
"Buy a shotgun," he concluded.
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quicklist: 2title: 'It's Not a Fence. It's a Banana.'text: On the same day he got a first call from President Obama on pending immigration legislation, Sen. John McCain got an earful from conservative Arizonans back home.
In one video captured by ABC's Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV an angry questioner yells at McCain, "You said 'build the dang fence.' Where's the fence?"
That's a reference to McCain's 2010 ad during a Republican primary where he tells an Arizona sheriff to "build the dang fence" to protect the border.
McCain's response, in which he's pointing at a map and clearly needs some more context, goes like this: "It's not a fence, it's a banana. We've put up a banana with about $600 million worth of appropriations we have."
At one point during the townhall, McCain told a man who identified himself as a former police officer that he was being "a jerk."
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quicklist: 3title: 'She Was Really Struggling and She Knew It.'text: Country singer Mindy McCready, who was a former "Celebrity Rehab" participant, committed suicide last week.
She was the fifth person who has appeared on the show to die in the past two years.
Dr. Drew Pinsky called in to "The View" to defend his show in the face of fresh criticism from the public and recovery advocates who say the process "doesn't belong on our TV screens."
"I wish I could be more responsible for them," Dr. Drew said of the show's alums when he called in to "The View." "I've received yesterday about 10 emails and texts from those that are doing well that are so grateful and wanted to reassure me."
Dr. Drew said he reached out to McCready recently after her boyfriend and father of one of her two children, David Wilson, died in January of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"She was so severely shattered by that experience. All the people around her, her friends began calling me," Dr. Drew told "The View." "She was in trouble. ... She was really struggling and she knew it."
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quicklist: 4title: 'I Didn't Mean to Shoot. I Didn't Even Think I Was Holding the Trigger.'text: Jodi Arias testified in her defense about the night she shot her boyfriend, Travis Alexander.
Arias described the beginning of the fight on June 4, 2008, when she and Alexander were taking nude photos in his shower and she claims she accidentally dropped his new camera, causing Alexander to lose his temper. Enraged, he picked her up and body slammed her onto the tile floor, screaming at her, she told the jury.
Arias said she ran to his closet to get away from him, but could hear Alexander's footsteps coming after her down the hall. She grabbed a gun from his shelf and tried to keep running, but Alexander came after her, she said.
"I pointed it at him with both of my hands. I thought that would stop him, but he just kept running. He got like a linebacker. He got low and grabbed my waist, and as he was lunging at me the gun went off. I didn't mean to shoot. I didn't even think I was holding the trigger," she said.
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quicklist: 5title: 'He Sort of Came Out Running.'text: While some kids will spend this weekend playing video games or at the mall, 9-year-old Nikolas Toocheck will be on his way to Antarctica to run his second marathon as part of his quest to run a marathon on every continent.
"Nikolas is a 9-year-old boy who loves to run. He sort of came out running," his mother Tara Toocheck told ABCNews.com with a laugh.
"He's always on the move," she said. "He's a bright, happy, adventurous, fun kid who decided at around age 6 to run some races and since then he has run quite a few with his dad."
Nikolas' father Daniel Toocheck, an optometrist who is also in the Air Force Reserve, is a seasoned runner who has completed about a dozen marathons. Nikolas started running when his dad was training for the Air Force's fitness test.
"I just think running is so fun and one of the things I like about it is running with my dad," Nikolas told ABCNews.com.
The fourth grader completed his first marathon on Dec. 1 in Delaware and was hooked.
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quicklist: 6title: 'I Look Forward to Saying Thank You to the Many Friends And Supporters Who Were Instrumental In Helping My Campaign.'text: Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will be making his first public appearance since losing his presidential bid last November when he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March.
"I look forward to saying thank you to the many friends and supporters who were instrumental in helping my campaign," Romney said in a statement.
An advisor to Romney told ABC News the speech is "an opportunity for him to express his appreciation to supporters and friends."
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quicklist: 7title: 'Relationships and Networks Are So Important in Terms of Career Path Success and Prosperity.'text: The old adage, "It's not what you know, but who you know," may ring true when it comes to the universities with the largest number of wealthy alumni.
Research firm Wealth-X compiled a list of the global universities with the largest number of living alumni worth $30 million or more, or ultra high net worth individuals, as they are called.
Based on Wealth-X's research, Harvard University blows the competition out of the water with 2,964 alumni worth a collective $622 billion. That's nearly twice the alumni of University of Pennsylvania, which follows with its 1,502 alumni of ultra high net worth individuals.
"Relationships and networks are so important in terms of career path success and prosperity," said David Friedman, president of Wealth-X.
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