Kamala Harris, gun owner, talks firearms at debate
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris surprised some viewers during her debate with Donald Trump when she said that she’s a gun owner, raising the fact to counter her Republican opponent’s accusation that she wants to confiscate firearms.
“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Harris said, referencing her running mate. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Harris previously talked about owning a gun in 2019 during her first campaign for president.
“I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety,” Harris previously said. “I was a career prosecutor.”
At the time, her campaign said that Harris purchased a handgun years earlier and kept it locked up. A spokesperson did not provide any additional details when asked on Tuesday.
The exchange about gun ownership came as Trump tried to paint Harris, who started her political career as a San Francisco district attorney, as radically liberal.
“She is destroying our country,” he said. “She has a plan to defund the police. She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun. She has a plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.”
Harris rebutted each of Trump’s allegations, adding that he should “stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
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Walz, the Minnesota governor, has also talked about gun ownership and boasted of his marksmanship.
Republicans frequently describe Democrats as a threat to the second amendment, while Democrats describe their proposals as common sense measures to protect public safety.
Harris has called for implementing universal background checks and expanding red flag laws to take away guns from people who are deemed dangerous or unstable. She also wants to ban so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.