Vice President Kamala Harris had a quick comeback for Donald Trump after she accused him of wanting to take away people’s guns during Tuesday’s debate.
“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.
The comment was caught at such a time Attention is onlineIt wasn’t actually news. Harris talked about gun ownership during his last campaign for president. “I’m a gun owner, and I have a gun probably for the same reason that a lot of people do — for personal safety,” Harris said told reporters After a campaign event in 2019.
At the time, Harris alluded to his career as a prosecutor by way of explanation. It’s not uncommon for those who work in law enforcement, from parole officers to police to chief law enforcement officers, to have a gun in case someone they encounter in the legal system might try to exact revenge — as there is happened before. The surprise is almost certainly due to another reason: Harris is a liberal state-of-the-art multiracial woman who calls Banning assault weapons and passing universal background checks.
But all this should not be shocking. I wrote in my feature last month that as millions of Americans decide to buy their first guns during the pandemic, women — especially black and Hispanic women — are one of the fastest-growing groups among gun owners in the country.
Between 1980 and 2014, only 9 to 14 percent are women Owned guns. but Between 2019 and 2021, half of first-time gun buyers were women. According to a Northeastern University study. Another study of new gun owners found that from 2020 to 2022, 69 percent were people of color. As of last year, More than half of Americans They or someone in their family had a gun.
Harris is correct that the vast majority of gun owners are Say they have a gun for protection, And the fact that he counts himself among the millions of Americans who own guns reveals an important truth that is often hidden. While the national debate is usually framed as a battle between two opposing interests — anti-gun liberals who want to take away everyone’s guns and pro-gun conservatives who steadfastly reject any regulation — the reality is much more nuanced.
It is true that there is support for measures such as banning assault weapons is mixed. But the idea that all gun owners are completely opposed to any gun control is patently false and a narrative that gun control advocates are working to debunk.
It’s just that a the majority Americans say guns are too easy to get and regulations should be stricter. Even the majority of American gun owners Says they support things like universal background checks, permits and extreme risk laws to keep guns away from domestic abusers and others who may commit violence.
Interviews I have done with gun control activists and others News articlesThese advocates highlight the gun owners among them who are fighting for stronger gun laws. It’s not just urban and coastal liberals and people who have never owned a gun before who want to see better regulation, but a wider range of Americans.
Harris understands this dynamic well. “We are being offered a false choice,” he said said In 2019. “You’re either pro-Second Amendment or you want to take away everyone’s guns. It’s a false choice born of a lack of courage on the part of leaders who must admit and agree that our country has a clear problem that has some realistic solutions.”
He must be right. Millions of Americans own guns and have complex feelings about them, polls show. It’s only people who don’t want to see any rules who are interested in pretending otherwise.
