Does US Vice President Kamala Harris own a gun?

WASHINGTON: American voters were surprised by Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent revelation that she owned a gun, but the revelation carried a deliberate political message.

Harris owns a handgun for personal safety and it is stored in a secure location at her home in California, the White House said, after the presidential candidate revealed the same thing in two recent interviews and during her debate with Republican Donald Trump.

In an interview with “60 Minutes” on CBS NewsHarris said she owns a Glock, an Austrian-designed weapon favored by U.S. law enforcement.

Important quotes

“I have a Glock,” Harris said in the “60 Minutes” interview that aired Oct. 7. “And I’ve had it for a while… my background is in law enforcement.”

“If someone breaks into my house, they’re going to get shot,” Harris said in a Sept. 19 interview with Oprah Winfrey when asked about the gun.

“This thing about taking away everyone’s guns — Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking away anyone’s guns, so stop lying about this stuff all the time,” Harris said during her debate with Trump in September, referring to her running mate, Walz.

In 2019, Harris told reporters: “I’m a gun owner and I probably own a gun for the reason that many people own a gun – for personal safety. I was a career prosecutor.”

“I’m a good shot,” Harris said during a Politico onstage interview in California in 2015, after being asked if she had ever fired a gun. “Yes, I have shot a gun many times,” she said, adding that it was a pistol.

Why it matters

Harris, along with most members of her Democratic Party, has advocated for tightening gun safety laws to curb the high number of gun deaths and injuries in the United States.

Republicans blocking this bill have argued that Democrats want to confiscate Americans’ guns and repeal the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives Americans the right to “bear arms.”

Harris is trying to appeal to some voters, including the one-third of Americans who own a gun and the two-thirds of Americans who support greater regulation of gun ownership.

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Harris has called for the implementation of universal background checks and the expansion of red flag laws to take guns away from people deemed dangerous or unstable. She also wants to ban so-called assault weapons and large magazines.

Trump’s New York City concealed carry license was suspended in April 2023 following his criminal indictment. CNN reported. According to the news outlet, he turned in two of three pistols he owned and the third was taken to Florida.