Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris surprised social media on Tuesday night by announcing during the ABC News Presidential Debate that both she and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are gun owners.
The revelation came in Philadelphia, where Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump criticized Harris, claiming she had distanced herself from her previous left-leaning positions since becoming the nominee.
“She has a plan to defund the police. She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun. She planned to allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else,” Trump stated during the debate. “That’s what her plan is, until just recently.”
In response, Harris defended herself and disclosed that both she and Walz own guns. “I’ve made very clear my position on fracking and then this business about taking everyone’s guns away,” she stated. “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ campaign on Wednesday, asking for details about her gun ownership, including what kind of gun she owns, where she keeps it, and when she last went shooting. The campaign responded by referring to CNN’s previous reporting from 2019, which noted that Harris owns a handgun purchased “years ago” and kept locked away “as a responsible gun owner.”
Following the debate, Walz also took to social media to clarify his stance, writing on X, “Kamala Harris and I are both gun owners. We’re not going to take away your Second Amendment rights — we’re going to prevent your kids from getting shot at school.”
The announcement stirred up social media, with many users sharing past footage of Harris expressing support for a mandatory gun buyback program during her 2019 campaign trail appearances.
“Harris is now claiming that her and Tim Walz are gun owners and she isn’t going to take guns away from anyone which we all know is a lie,” wrote Wendy Patterson to her 193,300 followers on X. “She also says that she’s for fracking which we all know is a lie.”
Another user, Arynne Wexler, commented to her 28,400 followers, “Since when is Kamala Harris a gun owner?? When has she talked about that?”
Back in 2019, Harris, then a U.S. Senator, had advocated for banning assault weapons and implementing universal background checks as part of a broader push for stricter gun control. At the time, she explained her gun ownership by saying, “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do – for personal safety,” as reported by CNN. Harris, who has previously served as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, added, “I was a career prosecutor.”
During an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” four years ago, she reiterated her support for mandatory buybacks of assault weapons, stating, “I do believe that we need to do buybacks… They are weapons of war with no place on the streets of a civil society. I’ve seen assault weapons kill babies and police officers.”
Harris also vowed to take executive action if Congress fails to address the issue. “I’m prepared to take executive action and put in place a ban on the importation of assault rifles into our country,” she said. “But we still have to deal with the over 2 million assault weapons that are currently in the streets of America. And so a buyback program is a good idea.”
The debate and Harris’ remarks sparked widespread discussion, underscoring the ongoing debate over gun control and Second Amendment rights as a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.
