The presumptive 2024 Democratic pick for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday selected Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., as her running mate. Where does Walz stand on guns?
Walz, 60, is Minnesota's 41st governor and was first elected to the office in 2018 on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party ticket. Before moving into the governor's mansion, he represented Minnesota's 1st district in Congress between 2007 and 2019, as a Democrat.
Before moving into politics, Walz worked in manufacturing, was a teacher in China (not a misprint) and Nebraska, and served in the Army National Guard – although he controversially retired from the Guard after learning his battalion would be deployed to Iraq.
While in Congress, Walz crossed the aisle at first and supported Second Amendment rights, even earning the occasional endorsement of the NRA. At the time, Walz embraced the minivan-dad mold and relied on his military service ("24 years in the Army National Guard") and past recreational shooting experience ("I grew up hunting") to vouch for his pro-gun credentials. As a House Sportsmen’s Caucus member in 2015, he helped shepherd the SHARE Act, a hunter's access bill, through the chamber.
However, as he neared toward larger state office, Walz flip-flopped on gun policy, supported universal background checks, “no fly, no buy” legislation, spending taxpayer funds on "research into gun violence," cast a "no" vote against concealed-carry reciprocity, and co-sponsored a bill to ban common semi-automatic firearms.
When running for governor in 2018, Walz publicly rebuked the NRA while still holding up his veneer of being versed in gun speak ("I’m a lifelong sportsman and a 24-year-veteran of our military.")
Since coming to office in Minnesota, Walz has signed every anti-gun bill that has made it to his desk including legislation (hidden in an omnibus finance bill) creating universal background checks, an absolute ban on "binary triggers," and a "red flag" gun confiscation law.
National anti-gun groups warmly endorsed Walz on Tuesday, including verytown and Giffords.
On the other side of the spectrum, Gun Owners of America, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the NRA slammed the governor.
"Tim Walz is a political chameleon – changing his positions to further his own personal agenda," said Randy Kozuch, Chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund. "In Congress, Walz purported to be a friend of gun owners to receive their support in his rural Minnesota district. Once he had his eyes set on other offices, he sold out law-abiding Minnesotans and promoted a radical gun control agenda that emboldened criminals and left everyday citizens defenseless. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz cannot be trusted to defend freedom and our Constitutional rights."
At Waltz and Harris' first public event in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Harris vouched for her Veep pick's gun control background before saying, "Together, when we win in November we are finally going to pass universal background checks, red flag flaws, and an assault weapons ban," kind of putting it all on the table.
