The only vice presidential candidate debate of the 2024 election cycle spent several minutes touching on the subject of America's gun policy.
The 90-minute debate, held at CBS's historic Studio 45 in New York on Tuesday night, pitted U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R) of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) with "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell and "Face the Nation" correspondent Margaret Brennan as moderators.
After sparring on abortion, the economy, and border security, O'Donnell turned to "America's gun violence epidemic" and asked Vance – who she highlighted as opposing gun control – if parents should be held responsible for mass shootings done by youth.
"I trust local law enforcement to make those decisions," said Vance. "In some cases, the answer will be yes, and in some cases, the answer will be no. The details really matter. If the kid steals a gun, that's going to be different than if a parent hands over a gun and knows a kid will be potentially dangerous."
Vance later pivoted on the question and told O'Donnell that the thing "that really bothers me and worries me" is that the majority of gun crime "is committed with illegally obtained firearms. While we are on that topic, we know that thanks to Kamala Harris's open border, we've seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartels. The amount of illegal guns in our country is higher today than it was 3.5 years ago."
Vance then stumped for increased school security measures.
"We have to make the doors lock better," he said. "We have to make the doors and window stronger. And of course, we have to increase school resource officers. Because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, just doesn't fit with recent experience. We've got to make our schools safer and we have to have some common sense bipartisan solutions for how to do that."
On the same question, Walz tried to show off his gun creds, then launched into talking about gun control.
"I am a hunter. I own firearms, and the Vice President is. We understand the Second Amendment is there," said Walz. "In Minnesota, we enacted enhanced red flag laws and enhanced background checks. And we can start to get data. But here's the problem. If we really want to solve this, we've got folks that won't allow research to even be done on gun violence."
He even addressed the prospect of an "assault weapons" ban without saying the words.
"There are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference. It's not infringing on your Second Amendment. The idea to have some of these weapons out there, it just doesn't make any sense. Kamala Harris as an attorney general worked on this issue. She knows that it is there. No one is trying to scaremonger and say we're taking your guns," said Walz. "You can still keep your firearms and we can make a difference."
O'Donnell then asked Walz specifically about his flip-flopping on the subject of gun bans throughout his political career, only for him to confusingly give a winding non-answer and point to mental health issues and rural suicide, without sticking the landing to make it coherent.
The verbatim answer:
I am of an age where my shotgun was in my car to pheasant hunt after football practice. That's not where we live today. Several things I want to mention on this, talking about cities, the number one – where the most firearm deaths happen – in Minnesota are rural suicides. We have an epidemic of children getting guns and shooting themselves. We have, and we should look at all of the issues. Making sure folks have health care and all that, but I want to be very careful. The idea of stigmatizing mental health, just because you have a mental health issue doesn't mean you are violent. We start looking for a scapegoat, sometimes it's just the guns. There are things you can do about it. I think this is a healthy conversation. I think there is a capacity to find solutions on this that work. Protect the Second Amendment and protect our children. That's our priority.
Voters head to the polls on Nov. 5, although early voting starts as much as 46 days before Election Day in some states. In many states, deadlines to register to vote are even closer.
