While Vice President Kamala Harris raised eyebrows Tuesday when she said that she is a gun owner, she has made that claim for at least a decade – and even bragged that she is “a good marksman.”
“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Harris said Tuesday night during a presidential debate with her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is Harris’ running mate on the Democrat Party’s ticket in 2024. Ironically, both are strong opponents of traditional Second Amendment rights.
In fact, at least as far back as 2015, Harris has discussed, however tersely, her gun ownership. During a Politico Playbook interview, she claimed that she had fired a gun “many times.”
“I am a good marksman,” Harris declared, only to be corrected by a male reporter who told her that she is a “good marks-person.”
Harris said that she was a crack shot with a pistol (as opposed to a rifle). But, when she was asked to describe the last time she fired her pistol and whether hunting was one of her uses for a gun, Harris refused to answer and replied “I’m not going any further with this”:
Reporter: “Have you shot a gun?”
Kamala Harris: “Yes, I have.”
Reporter: “Let’s talk about the last time.”
Kamala Harris: “No.”
Reporter: “Do you, like, hunt? Or, what do you do?”
Kamala Harris: “I’m a good marksman. Yes, I have shot a gun many times.”
Reporter: “You’re a good marks-person with a pistol or a rifle?”
Kamala Harris: “A pistol. And I’m not, like…I’m not going any further with this.”
Harris also confessed her gun ownership in 2019 during her failed bid to become Democrats’ 2020 presidential candidate. “I am a gun owner,” the California senator tersely admitted in an interview with Politico, adding that “I own a gun for the probably same reason that most people do: for personal safety.”
“A former prosecutor who rose to become California’s attorney general and who herself owns a gun for protection, Harris offers a unique background for a candidate trying to make the issue her own,” Politico wrote in April of that year.
The Politico article also warned that Harris’ push as San Francisco’s district attorney for higher bail for gun charges could actually have a racist effect:
“But as district attorney of San Francisco, she backed increased bail amounts for defendants facing gun-related charges, a move that could disproportionately affect people of color.”