With President Joe Biden throwing in the towel over the weekend as the 2024 Democrat candidate, deferring to his Veep, the question remains of how Kamala Harris views gun control.
The 59-year-old Vice President came to office in 2020 on Biden's "tough on guns" platform but before that had been the junior U.S. senator from California. Joining the Senate in 2017 in the seat on Capitol Hill long held by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, Harris sponsored nearly 100 bills, amendments, and resolutions, ranging from clean vehicle emissions standards to diversity and civil rights issues. Most have gained little traction and are still in committee, with only two – resolutions condemning racial violence – passing floor votes.
She was a co-sponsor of fellow Californian Dianne Feinstein's "Assault Weapons Ban," which was far more expansive than the one narrowly passed in 1994, also authored by Mrs. Feinstein. She was also signed on to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey's (D-Mass) bill to use taxpayer funds for researching gun control as a public health issue, and to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy's (D-Conn) bill to expand background checks to virtually all gun transfers.
Harris was a co-sponsor of mandatory gun lock legislation, a bill that could take away the three-day "safety valve" that prevents background checks on gun sales from lasting indefinitely, and a bill that would outlaw the digital publication of plans to make firearms.
Since shifting to the White House, Harris has been instrumental in setting up a new "White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention," which reports directly to her. The office is staffed largely by long-time gun control activists, including Everytown's Robert Wilcox as one of its deputy directors. The office last week met with "over 30 state government officials from 16 states, including leaders from 12 state Offices of Gun Violence Prevention," to have a series of conversations about advancing gun policy.
2020 Presidential plan
While in Congress, Harris made an unsuccessful attempt at becoming the 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee. Her official campaign website (now deleted but archived here) took a strong stand on tougher gun laws. This included a vow to expand background checks to cover private gun transfers, gut legal protections against frivolous lawsuits directed at the firearms industry, expand the pool of those liable to lose their Second Amendment rights, and institute a fine system of up to $500,000 against “law-breaking gun corporations.”
She also publicly stated last April that she would be ready to move forward on gun policy through stand-alone executive action as president after giving Congress "a hundred days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws.”
Before the Senate
Before Harris packed her bags for Washington, she had spent six years as the California state Attorney General, an elected position for which she ran in 2010 with the support of fellow party members U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While in Sacramento, she oversaw an expansion of a controversial program to seize firearms from prohibited gun owners, fought to keep the state’s 10-day waiting period for gun purchases, announced that California’s long-dormant microstamping law was in effect although there are no firearms capable of microstamping on the market, and was a key figure in the Peruta v San Diego case, which unsuccessfully challenged the state’s may-issue policies for concealed carry handgun permits.
Setting the stage for her work as AG, Harris had spent seven years as San Francisco's district attorney. While in that office, she supported the city's controversial mandatory gun lock law and wrote a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court against gun rights advocates in the landmark 2008 Heller case contending that the District of Columbia’s sweeping gun ban was legal. The brief contended that the Second Amendment "provides only a militia-related right to bear arms," not an individual right.
The nation's high court did not agree.
Banner image: Screenshot of June 20, 2024, White House video, "Vice President Harris Participates in a Moderated Conversation on Reproductive Rights."
