Is Kamala Harris a Gun Owner? The Answer Might Surprise You
"We're not taking any of these guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff."
Published Sept. 11 2024, 10:50 a.m. ET
There were plenty of surprising revelations from the first debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Sept. 10, 2024.
For instance, Donald Trump claimed that migrants in an Ohio town are eating people's pets. But we digress.
Many Americans may also have been taken aback to learn that Kamala Harris is a gun owner.
So how does this fact fit in with her politics? Let's discuss below.
Yes, Kamala Harris is a gun owner.
Although the vice president and 2024 Democratic nominee for the top job in the land is in favor of stricter gun laws, the former prosecutor is also a gun owner, which she disclosed to CNN in 2019.
Harris said she owns a gun “for personal safety” given the potentially dangerous nature of her job.
Per NPR, the nominee also heads President Joe Biden's White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Furthermore, the outlet notes that Harris supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which aims to limit gun access for the illegal purchase of firearms.
When Biden and Harris took office in 2020, gun deaths were actually up in the United States, per the Centers for Disease Control. In 2021, more Americans died from gun-related violence than in any year on record in our country.
In 2023, Axios reported that overall, gun deaths had decreased — but that mass shootings increased since 2022.
With all of this as a backdrop, Harris clarified her own personal gun ownership status during the ABC debate against Trump.
Her comments were in response to the Republican nominee's claims that she and her VP pick are looking to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights.
"This business about taking everyone's guns away, Tim Walz and I are both gun owners," she declared. "We're not taking any of these guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff."
Is Donald Trump a gun owner?
The question of whether Harris's opponent is a gun owner is a bit complicated.
According to the New York Post, Trump is a licensed gun owner, but since being convicted of a felony in the summer of 2024, legally, the divisive former president must turn over his weapons.
As for whether Trump has actually done this, well, according to CNN, back in April 2023, when the Republican was indicted on criminal charges, his concealed carry license was revoked.
At that time, Trump surrendered two pistols to the NYPD, per the news outlet, and a third gun “was lawfully moved to Florida."
In June 2024, upon his conviction, technically he should have surrendered that firearm as well. There is no update as to whether this took place.
Either way, Reuters reports that despite the fact that a gun was used in an assassination attempt against the former president, Trump is still a staunch protector of gun rights.
Troublingly, neither candidate addressed school gun violence in their first debate, even though the most recent mass shooting took place at a Georgia high school a week prior to their faceoff.
