But perhaps the most astonishing shift – at least for those who aren’t policy wonks – has been her moderating stance on gun control. While in 2019 she supported mandatory buybacks, her current stance reflects a more tempered approach. The recent PR blitz with Oprah Winfrey was in the same vein, where Harris looked to push two messages: 1) She’s not going to touch the Second Amendment, and 2) She’s a gun owner who supports gun safety laws.
Harris jokingly told Oprah: “If someone breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”
Harris’s sudden gun enthusiasm reminded one of Travis Bickle, the tortured antagonist of Martin Scorsese’s
Taxi Driver
, who became obsessed with self-defence and bought a bunch of guns from a dealer to “protect himself”, which culminated in him getting a haircut and shooting up a brothel.
Perhaps there was a grain of truth to Harris’s joke about anyone breaking in getting shot, as it’s not unusual for prosecutors to own firearms for protection given their day job of locking up particularly violent criminals.
Harris first mentioned guns in her 2019 Presidential campaign, with the firearm securely stored in her LA home. When Harris ran a more progressive campaign – of course, she didn’t run very long before meeting an oratorical wall called Tulsi Gabbard – she wasn’t particularly vocal about her gun ownership. On the other hand, at the 2024 DNC, she emphasised that both she and her VP, Tim Walz, were gun owners. Now that she’s trying to appeal to a broader base, Harris is more vocal about her gun ownership while advocating for safer gun control.
Harris claims that her stance on gun safety is driven by her being a gun owner and that she has no desire to infringe on the Second Amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Harris’s team stonewalled CNN when asked about the date of procurement or make of the firearm. When asked if Harris had practised her line about gun ownership before the debate, the adviser admitted to CNN it was a “good way for her to highlight that she respects the Second Amendment”.
Of course, none of her statements come close to Donald Trump, who famously said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, a move that was replicated in the dystopian TV show
The Boys
, where the Trumpian Homelander kills someone with heat vision in front of an audience.
‘What If Trump Doesn’t…’: Meryl Streep’s Big Question At Kamala-Oprah Show | U.S. Capitol Riots
Harris on Gun Safety
Here are Kamala Harris‘s statements on gun safety, organised statement by statement:
- Las Vegas forum, 2019: “We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory buyback program.”
- Campaign stop in Iowa, 2019: “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety. I was a career prosecutor.
- Vice Presidential Debate, October 2020: “I will not take away your gun. But if you’re talking about weapons of war, we need to ban assault weapons.”
- Remarks on red flag laws, 2023: “Red flag laws can save lives by preventing individuals who are a danger to themselves or others from possessing firearms. It’s a commonsense solution that can help prevent mass shootings and suicides.”
- WPVI Philadelphia interview, 2024: “I have personally prosecuted homicide cases. I have personally looked at autopsies. I have personally seen what assault weapons do to the human body, and so 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.”
Here are 10 other stories to keep track of the race:
1) Kennedy Redux: Is it even a US election without a Kennedy sex scandal? A New York magazine star journalist is under the scanner for her relationship with RFK Jr.
2) Oprah Takeaways: Here are the top takeaways from Oprah’s event with Harris.
3) Undecided: For the first time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said it won’t endorse any presidential candidate. However, there’s one candidate most members are likelier to back.
4) Gun Battle: What have Harris and Trump said about gun laws so far?
4) Keeping them humble: The Second Gentleman had a rebuttal for Sarah Sanders who attacked Harris for not having any biological children.
5) Vance Attack: Laura Loomer has a theory about who’s planting Vance stories.
6) Media Bias? 95% of coverage about Trump after the second assassination attempt who was negative, claims a Conservative media watchdog.
7) Oprah vs Trump: There was a time when Oprah and Trump were BFFs. What went wrong?
8) Anti-Semitism: A major Republican candidate from North Carolina is being accused of anti-Semitism. Will it hurt Trump?
9) Trump’s appeal to Jews: At a pro-Israel rally, the Donald urged Jewish voters who back Harris to “get their head examined”.
10) Trouble for Harris? Muslim voters in UK upset Keir Starmer’s plans during the recent election. Could the same happen across the pond as Muslim-Americans switch their allegiance to the Green Party?