Ahead of the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign revealed his “plan to end the gun violence epidemic," and he has fought to implement those proposed “solutions” throughout his presidency. Now, the Harris campaign echoes the same stance, promising to succeed where Biden failed. But make no mistake – a Harris administration would not be a simple continuation of the current president’s crusade. Don’t let the campaign rhetoric fool you; the VP’s plans for gun control make Biden’s seem almost constitutional by comparison.
Joe Biden vs the Second Amendment
Since taking the White House, the president has advocated for and tried to enact various controversial gun control measures. Joe Biden, of course, claims that these laws are in line with the Second Amendment, but he has yet to convince enough federal lawmakers to get all he wants passed through Congress.
Extreme risk protection orders – or, as they’re more commonly known, red flag laws – allow Americans to be disarmed without what has long been considered due process. One person can report someone else as a threat to themselves or others, and based on nothing more than that, a judge can issue an extreme risk protection order to have that individual disarmed – no criminal conviction or even accusation needed. What’s worse, these hearings generally occur without people’s knowledge, leaving them unaware until the police show up to confiscate their firearms.
The so-called assault weapons ban would outlaw the sale of considerably more semi-automatic firearms than the one passed in 1994 – and it would be permanent. The capacity of detachable magazines would also be regulated. Unregistered homemade firearms would be prohibited and lumped together with commercially built weapons in the “ghost gun” category that have altered or removed serial numbers.
Then there’s access. The age to purchase a firearm would be raised to 21 for all types, and there would be a nationwide requirement for background checks, rendering any private sale that doesn’t go through a licensed dealer a felony.
The Biden administration fell short of fully achieving any of these goals – though it made some headway with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022.
Kamala Harris, Gun Control Champion
So far, the Harris campaign hasn’t changed much in presentation. Biden often incorrectly claimed that cannons are and have always been illegal to own as a private citizen – never mind the fact that Americans have never been forbidden cannons in this country. He also liked to say civilians armed with AR-15s are nothing compared to the might of the US military and its fighter jets and nukes. Now, Harris talks about the right to live free from violence – but promised gun control remains the same.
“We who believe that every person in our nation sh – who should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence – will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks, and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said during her first official campaign event in West Allis, Wisconsin, on July 23.
Then, in her July 30 speech at the Georgia State Convocation Center in Atlanta, Harris promised: “We, who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence, will finally pass universal background checks, red flag laws, and an assault weapons ban.”
Sound familiar? But wait, there’s more.
During her failed 2020 campaign, Kamala Harris advocated for even more gun control than this. Indeed, she went so far that even Joe Biden doubted whether a president could have such authority. Her ideas, while quite popular with progressives, were simply too much for the more moderate voters. She has yet to repeat those propositions during this cycle.
In 2019, Harris loudly and frequently proclaimed that, as president, if Congress didn’t pass new gun control laws within the first 100 days of her administration, she would do so by executive action. She also suggested holding a mandatory assault weapon buyback and, using a list of those who own such firearms, sending police on confiscation raids. So, according to 2019 Kamala Harris, her administration would ban so-called assault weapons with or without Congress, then demand previously lawful owners sell their guns to the government in return – to be paid for with their tax dollars, of course. Any who failed to comply could expect men with guns to show up and take their weapons.
And she backed those threats up with claims of precedent. During a Democratic presidential primary forum in August 2019, she boasted, as California attorney general, that she had allowed police to go door-to-door to confiscate firearms using a state list of prohibited persons and people deemed a danger to themselves and others. “We sent law enforcement out to take those guns because we have to deal with this on all levels,” she reasoned at the time.
Did Harris Have a Change of Heart?
Is it any wonder the Harris campaign didn’t make it to the primaries in 2020 – or that, so far, she hasn’t resurrected this rhetoric? Her staff has been careful to walk back such extreme positions more recently. The New York Times reported Monday that unnamed sources had told it the vice president no longer supports many of the progressive policies she embraced in 2019. According to The Reload, a campaign spokesperson, Lauren Hitt, confirmed that in an email: “Correct, the VP will not push for a mandatory buy back as president,” Hitt wrote. “She has expressed support for red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.”
Perhaps Harris has really mellowed on the matter over the last several years. Maybe she has a new opinion on the subject, one different from what she has espoused throughout her entire political career before now. Then again, it could be that her most recent stance is an illusion to make her more palatable to a broader swath of voters. Given her past, one could be forgiven for taking the more cynical view.
