Vice President Kamala Harris told a Philadelphia TV station Friday that she will not be "taking anyone’s guns away" if she’s elected president and that she supports the Second Amendment, even though she said she believes "we need an assault weapons ban" and "reasonable gun safety laws."
Harris talked with WPVI -TV in Johnstown in western Pennsylvania, where she was campaigning, in her first one-on-one media interview since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket.
Harris was asked where she draws the line in America on gun ownership and gun use.
"I am a gun owner and Tim Walz, my running mate, is also a gun owner," Harris said, repeating a line she mentioned during Tuesday’s debate with former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia. "We're not taking anyone's guns away. I support the Second Amendment, and I support reasonable gun safety laws."
In 2019, though, while running for the Democrat presidential nomination, Harris reportedly said, "We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory gun buyback program." And as a senator that year, she signed onto a bill that would have banned assault weapons, a category that encompasses the most commonly owned rifle in the U.S., the AR-15. And at a rally just a month ago, Harris reportedly vowed to sign into law a ban on such weapons if she’s elected in November.
"I feel very strongly that it is consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say we need an assault weapons ban," she told WPVI. "They're literally tools of war. I say we need universal background checks. The majority of NRA members support that. Why? It's just reasonable. You just might want to know."
Harris didn't offer proof that the majority of NRA members support universal background checks given that the NRA has long opposed them. In April, the NRA said in a new release that " 'universal' background checks are universal in name only and don’t stop criminals from stealing firearms, getting them on the black market, or getting them from straw purchasers."
The NRA also noted a Department of Justice survey done in 2016 and released in 2019 that showed 75% of criminals in state and federal prisons who possessed a firearm during their offense acquired the firearm through theft, "off the street/underground market" or "from a family member or friend, or as a gift." Less than 1% got firearms from dealers or nondealers at gun shows.
"Although Kamala Harris is now using her supposed status as a gun owner to justify her plans to disarm law-abiding Americans, she does not speak for NRA members," said Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action in an email to Newsmax. "Neither do pollsters who have never had access to our member data."