Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris surprised many when she revealed Tuesday night that she is a gun owner as she rebuffed former President Trump’s claim during the presidential debate that her administration would confiscate Americans’ firearms.
“This business about taking everyone’s guns away, Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Harris said during the debate hosted by ABC News. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Walz has spoken publicly about being an avid hunter and gun owner. He even earned “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association from 2010 to 2016, though his grade fell to an “F” in 2018 after the Minnesota governor backed stricter gun laws after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
But Harris’ quip about having a gun raised eyebrows, even though it’s not the first time the vice president has spoken about it publicly.
In 2019, while running in the Democratic presidential primary, Harris told reporters that she is a gun owner, according to a CNN report at the time.
“I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety,” she said. “I was a career prosecutor.”
A Harris campaign aide told CNN in 2019 that she has a handgun that was purchased years ago.
She also said at a policy forum during her first presidential campaign that she supports a mandatory buyback program for assault-syle weapons.
“There are 5 million at least, some estimate as many as 10 million,” Harris said of the guns. “And we’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it the right way.”
Harris campaign officials told The New York Times in July that she will not push for a mandatory buyback of certain guns as president, but supports tightening gun restrictions.
Following Tuesday’s debate, a Harris campaign official again confirmed the Democratic presidential nominee owns a handgun, and it’s the same firearm she mentioned five years ago.
Harris has called for more stringent gun laws, including universal background checks and red-flag laws, which allow people to petition the courts to temporarily take away a person’s gun if they are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. She also supports a ban on assault-style weapons and increased funding for mental health care.
But the vice president has said on the campaign trail that she supports the Second Amendment.
“It is a false choice to say you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” she said during a campaign event in New Hampshire last week. “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country.”
The debate between Harris and Trump was their first face-to-face meeting and may be the only matchup between the two presidential hopefuls before the November election.