Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris surprised social media Tuesday night, revealing on the debate stage that both she and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are gun owners.
During a debate in Philadelphia, former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, aimed to spotlight how Harris has distanced herself from her previous far-left 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.
“That’s what her plan is, until just recently.”
However, Harris fired back in response, stating emphatically that both she and Walz own guns. This declaration quickly stirred social media into a frenzy.
Harris Fires Back at Critics
“I’ve made very clear my position on fracking and then this business about taking everyone’s guns away,” Harris remarked. “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 the Harris campaign on Wednesday for more specifics on whether Harris still owns a gun. They asked what kind of gun she owns, where she keeps it, and when she last went shooting. The campaign referred to CNN’s reporting from 2019, where a Harris campaign aide confirmed that she owned a handgun purchased “years ago” and kept locked away as a responsible gun owner.
Walz echoed Harris’ sentiment on social media after the debate.
“Kamala Harris and I are both gun owners,” Walz wrote on X.
“We’re not going to take away your Second Amendment rights — we’re going to prevent your kids from getting shot at school.”
Past Statements on Gun Control Spark Outrage
Harris’ revelation of gun ownership stunned social media users. Many shared past clips of her on the campaign trail in 2019, where she voiced support for a mandatory gun buyback program.
“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,” Wendy Patterson wrote to her more than 193,300 followers on X. “She also says that she’s for fracking which we all know is a lie.”
Arynne Wexler, another user on X with over 28,400 followers, expressed disbelief: “Since when is Kamala Harris a gun owner?? When has she talked about that?”
NRA Reacts to Harris’ Debate Remarks
The National Rifle Association (NRA) quickly joined the conversation. They shared a clip on X of Harris being asked by MSNBC about her plan for the millions of assault weapons in circulation. Harris’ past stance was clear. “We have to have a buyback program. And I support a mandatory buyback program,” she said at the time.
The NRA’s post included a pointed message: “Kamala Harris is an existential threat to the Second Amendment.” They further criticized her debate remarks, stating, “This may be the most egregious lie in the history of presidential debates from Kamala Harris: ‘We’re not taking anybody’s guns away!'”
Harris’ Previous Calls for Gun Control
Notably, just four days before the debate, Harris had advocated for gun control measures in a post on X. “Together, we passed the first bipartisan law addressing gun violence prevention in nearly 30 years, but we have more work to do. We must pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and red flag laws,” she wrote on September 6.
The NRA responded to her comments on the debate by highlighting the inconsistency. “Kamala Harris last week: ‘We must pass an assault weapons ban.’ Kamala Harris this week: ‘We’re not taking anybody’s guns away,'” they posted.
Harris’ 2019 Campaign Position on Gun Buybacks
During her 2019 presidential campaign, Harris called for banning assault weapons and instituting universal background checks. “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do – for personal safety,” Harris stated in August 2019, according to CNN. She cited her background as a career prosecutor, having served as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general.
At a 2019 “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” event, Harris faced questions from college students. One student asked about her support for mandatory buybacks of assault weapons and how that aligns with the Second Amendment. Harris replied, “I do believe that we need to do buybacks,” Harris said.
“First of all, let’s be clear about what assault weapons are. They have been designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly. 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.”
She added, “So one, I’ll tell you when elected president, if the United States Congress continues to fail to have the courage to do something about this, 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.”
