Gun control is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics and has been a point of contention in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump disagree on guns — Trump told voters that Harris “wants to confiscate your guns,” which Harris denies. She wants to see stricter gun control laws, but also says she is a gun owner. Here are Trump and Harris’ positions and policy plans to combat gun violence in America.
Kamala Harris’ stance on guns
- Harris says she supports the Second Amendment and said during the September 10 debate with Trump that she owns a gun, a revelation she originally did so when she ran for president in 2019. “I own a gun probably for the reason a lot of people do: for their personal safety,” she said. declared at the time. “I was a career prosecutor.” She recently said at 60 minutes she owns a Glock and shot it at a shooting range.
- Harris supervises the White House Office on Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 with the goal of finding ways to circumvent Congressional inaction on tougher gun control laws firearms.
- The Biden administration in 2022 promulgated the bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It’s the most significant update to the gun safety law in nearly three decades, increasing background checks for gun buyers under 21, providing billions for mental health services and closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent convicted domestic abusers from purchasing a gun for five years. He also clarified the definition of arms dealers. The law faces challenges from 26 GOP-led states that are suing to block it.
- Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also owns a gun and is an avid hunter. He even held an “A” rating from the NRA at one point, but his rating dropped to an “F” in 2018, when he supported stricter gun laws in Minnesota following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. In the electoral campaign in October 2024, Walz went hunting with his own Beretta to appeal to gun owners.
Kamala Harris’ political plans on guns
- Harris supervises the White House Office on Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 to find a way around Congressional inaction on tougher gun control laws firearms.
- Her campaign website says that if Harris is elected, she would “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support whistleblowing laws that keep guns out of people’s hands dangerous.”
- Although she calls herself a supporter of the Second Amendment, Harris also favors stricter gun control measures. In a speech on September 12, Harris promised to “enact an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and whistleblowing laws.”
- While running for president in 2019, Harris committed to executive action on gunsstating in April 2019 that she would implement “near-universal” background checks, close loopholes to prevent people convicted of domestic violence from obtaining guns, and revoke the licenses of gun manufacturers and dealers who break the law. In October 2019, she said she supported a mandatory gun buyback program, but during the September 10 debate she told Trump: “We’re not going to take guns away from anyone, so stop continually lying about that sort of thing.”
Donald Trump’s position on guns
- Trump “believes that every American has a God-given right to protect themselves and their families and has proven through his actions that he will defend law-abiding gun owners,” his campaign said.
- The NRA endorsed Trump in May at its annual convention, and he has addressed the group several times, including in 2022, shortly after the Uvalde mass shooting.
- Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump signed a bill that reversed an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to purchase a gun.
- In a White House listening session with students and families affected by the 2018 Parkland shooting, Trump suggested bonuses for teachers who are “weapon experts” and offered support for providing concealed carry permits to teachers or retired military personnel on campus.
- After the Las Vegas mass shooting in October 2017, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms banned bump stocks, devices that significantly increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. -automatic. The ban took place later invalidated by the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump’s political plans regarding weapons
- Trump’s campaign said in a statement that he would “end every one of Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners in her first week in office and defend our constitutional right to bear arms “.
- He did not speak on the campaign trail about specific policy proposals on guns. At the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in February, Trump promised that “no one will lay a finger on your guns” if he wins the election.
- Trump said in the same speech that he “did nothing” to restrict guns while in the White House, although his administration signed the carryover ban into law in 2017. After the shooting mass in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, he called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen and improve the nation’s instant criminal background check system. And after the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Trump reiterated his support for ‘red flag’ laws and more rigorous background checks, although many Second Amendment activists fought the measureand it was finally dropped later that year.
