Kamala Harris' muted support for gun restrictions

Mass shootings, a depressingly common occurrence in the United States, have generally led to greater support for more restrictive gun laws. Twice this century — after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting — there have been dramatic shifts in polling that have led to a seemingly permanent increase in the share of Americans who say they support stricter gun laws. Yet the political coalition to pursue sweeping reform has never materialized. Still, Democrats have long supported a suite of what they call "common sense" gun reforms that stop well short of a wholesale revision of gun ownership rights in the United States, and Kamala Harris is no exception.

A gun owner's modest reform platform

Harris stunned many liberals during her Sept. 10 debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump when she said that she was a gun owner. "This business about taking everybody's guns away — Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. So stop the continuous lying," she said in response to Trump claiming that she wants to confiscate guns. She owns a gun "for probably the reason a lot of people do: for personal safety. I was a career prosecutor," Harris said during her unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019. Many prosecutors and judges around the country worry that they will be subject to retaliation for their role in proceedings against those accused of crimes. During that campaign, Harris also supported mandatory assault weapons buyback programs, which would require owners of such weapons to turn them in for cash compensation in the event that Congress passes a renewed ban similar to the one that was in place from 1994 to 2004. Harris now says she no longer supports buybacks

As a U.S. senator from California, Harris co-sponsored bills that would impose a new assault weapons ban on certain kinds of rifles and require universal background checks for potential gun buyers. As vice president, she has backed the administration's efforts to prod states into passing "red flag laws." Such laws create a "civil proceeding that allows people — usually police officers and family members — to petition a judge for an emergency order that would temporarily remove firearms from a person found to be at risk of harming themselves or someone else," said The Guardian. Advocates say that such laws would have prevented many suicides and mass shootings had they been in place, while critics say they infringe on individuals' Second Amendment rights.

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The 2022 bipartisan gun safety bill signed into law by President Joe Biden created a national office to implement red flag laws. It also included background checks for gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21, and strengthened laws to prevent domestic abusers from obtaining a firearm. Because of her past stances on the issue as well as the Biden-Harris administration's efforts and accomplishments, Harris has been endorsed by all of the major gun reform advocacy groups, including Everytown For Gun Safety. "Her positions represent a direct attack on the Second Amendment and will destroy your Constitutional right to bear arms," said the National Rifle Association, which has endorsed Trump.

All quiet on the gun front

Her official campaign page has nothing to say about guns, and Harris has not unveiled any new proposals related to firearm legislation during the campaign. In public appearances, however, she has reiterated her support for a new assault weapons ban. Assault weapons like the AR-15 used in so many American mass shootings "are literally tools of war," Harris said in a Sept. 13 interview with Philadelphia's ABC News affiliate. She also expressed her support for universal background checks, another intervention that advocates believe will help keep guns out of the hands of mass shooters and criminals.

While she supported more restrictive measures on handguns as San Francisco District Attorney, including a ban on manufacturing, owning or selling handguns, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that such measures violate the Second Amendment, and Harris insists that she does not support legislation that would target handguns.