On Wednesday, more than a dozen state attorneys general sent President Joe Biden a notice. It included a letter condemning his State of the Union call to ban “assault weapons” from the Constitution. The letter was written by Montana AG Austin Knudsen.

Knudsen, along with the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska and Arkansas, Idaho and Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Mississippi, criticized Biden’s “irresponsible” and “unconstitutional demand for Congress to ban firearms commonly used for self-defense by law-abiding Americans.

Biden was notified by the attorneys general that they would use every tool available to stop you from violating Americans’ fundamental right of self-defense with guns.

In a letter to the AG, it states that:

Anti-gun politicians such as [Biden] use misleading labels like “assault weapons” to scare Americans. We expect us to support your efforts to criminalize law-abiding firearm owners. We know your personal definition of “assault weapon” is incredibly broad. It includes all semiautomatic weapons, which are used by more than 100 million Americans to protect their homes and families.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that there are approximately 100 million semi-automatic handguns within the United States. This vast majority are lawfully owned by law-abiding Americans exercising their God-given right to self-defense. The semi-automatic handgun is the best choice for self-defense. A total of 45 million semiautomatic rifles are legally owned in the United States. When Americans hear you intend to attack our so-called “assault weapon”, they prepare for an attack on safe and effective weapons that are commonly used by more than 100 million Americans for home and self defense.

Your CDC says that Americans use guns to protect themselves or their families as often as 3 million times per annum. This is far more than guns are used for crimes and far more than guns injure people.

The attorneys general also discredited Biden’s claim that the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons, which he supported in the U.S. Senate, reduced mass shootings. Their letter notes that “two different studies commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice–during the Clinton and Bush Administrations–found no discernible effect on violent crime from that legislation.”

The attorneys general reminded President Biden that the right to keep and bear arm is one of the fundamental and most deeply rooted liberties in the Constitution. It protects and guards the most fundamental of rights, the human right to life. And it is a constant bulwark from tyranny. The letter warns that we are ready to resist any attempt by your Administration, to violate this fundamental constitutional right.