When President Bill Clinton asked House Democrats to pass an assault weapons ban in 1994, Democratic leaders, fearing the vote would cost them seats, begged him to rescind it. they were right. Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years, condemning the assault weapons ban and allowing it to expire. Since then, they have struggled to find effective messages about gun safety.
Now Vice President Kamala Harris is on the scene, borrowing Republican language and talking about guns in a new way for a Democrat.
In her first campaign ad, she promised Americans the “freedom to protect themselves from gun violence,” telling Oprah Winfrey that she owned a gun and that if someone broke into her home, she would “shoot them.” “I can do it,” he said. In doing so, Harris has upended Democratic stereotypes and reframed the conversation around guns — even as she vows to reinstate the lapsed ban, a long-standing goal of many in her party. Despite that.
“To suggest that you’re in favor of the Second Amendment or that you want to take guns away from everyone,” Harris said last month at a White House ceremony where President Biden signed two executive orders on gun safety. It was the wrong choice.” . “I support the Second Amendment and believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.”
Supporters of gun safety laws say the vice president, like most previous presidential candidates, has been committed to the issue. Democrats say her message will appeal to constituencies crucial to winning the election: moderate and undecided voters in battleground states, especially suburban women deeply concerned about school shootings. I hope so.
“You’re not going to get right-wing male Trump supporters” who decide their votes based on support from the National Rifle Association, Democratic pollster Selinda Lake said. “But I think the story of freedom will bring out a lot of people, like the Michigan hunter (and his wife may also hunt) who don’t believe you need an AR-15 to hunt deer. Masu.”
The story fits into the campaign’s broader theme of freedom, which Harris articulated in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
“Many other fundamental freedoms are at stake in this election,” she said, citing examples such as “the freedom to love who you love.” “Breathe clean air and drink clean water.” and “freedom to vote.” At the top of the list was “the freedom to live safe from gun violence.”
The politics of gun safety — which Democrats long ago abandoned what they called “gun control” — have changed dramatically since the 1994 midterm elections that ousted pro-gun Democrats from power. It changed to
“Thirty years ago, you couldn’t get a Democrat in the room,” said Joshua M. Horwitz, a professor of gun violence prevention and advocacy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. When Democrats lost the House in 1994, they “were scared and didn’t take up one of the most powerful issues for years afterward,” he said.
Things started to change after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Democrats tried to reinstate the assault weapons ban as part of gun safety legislation, but the legislation collapsed on Capitol Hill. Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, whose son was shot to death, and other Democrats won elections on the issue of gun violence, even in red states.
In 2022, Congress passed the first gun safety law in nearly 30 years, signed into law by President Biden, who sponsored the original assault weapons ban in 1994. He later created the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Harris headed.
Statistics and the American experience support Harris’s claims. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 132 Americans die from gunshot injuries every day. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun deaths, there have been more than 400 mass shootings (defined as a shooting that injures four or more people, not including the perpetrator) this year alone.
That makes it difficult for Republicans like former President Donald J. Trump to carry out gun rights advocacy, said Whit Ayers, a Republican strategist.
“It doesn’t mean they don’t have guns, it doesn’t mean people don’t care about gun rights, because they do,” Ayers said. “But it’s a stretch to argue that everyone needs an AR-15 for personal protection.”
The NRA is out of its former self, hobbled by corruption allegations and the resignation of longtime executive director Wayne LaPierre and revelations that he spent billions on well-tailored suits and lavish travel. It is being So Harris may just be in the right place at the right time to talk about tougher gun laws.
Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist and critic of the organization, said it’s a good idea for Harris to spotlight her own gun ownership, given that 140 million Americans own guns. He said it was wise. During the coronavirus pandemic, gun ownership has skyrocketed among African Americans, particularly black women, a key constituency for Harris.
But Feldman said the vice president would turn off many gun owners by accepting a ban on assault weapons. He said Democrats should focus on “people who misuse weapons” instead of talking about banning specific weapons. Still, gun safety law advocates say the vice president has been committed to the issue, like most previous presidential candidates. Giffords, an advocacy group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was seriously injured in a shooting, said after a poll found its message was persuasive to about 35% of Republicans. “Freedom,” said Emma Brown, the group’s president.
“It turbocharged me,” Harris said.
In some ways, Harris is simply reclaiming a term Democrats used long ago. During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
Harris, a former prosecutor, is challenging stereotypes not only about Democrats but also about female candidates by openly speaking about being a gun owner. This message echoes that of her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He is a hunter who once received an “A” rating from the NRA and currently has an “F” rating from the organization.
“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Ms. Harris said during a recent presidential debate. “We’re not taking anyone’s guns away,” Trump said, saying the vice president had “a plan to confiscate everyone’s guns.”
But there are risks in Harris speaking so openly about owning weapons. That could alienate voters, especially on the left, who worry that Harris is normalizing gun ownership in a country that already has more guns than people.
The campaign and the vice president’s office have provided few details about Harris’ weapon, other than that it is the same weapon she spoke of in 2019 in a locked case at her home in The Sun. The only thing he didn’t disclose was that it was a personal protection handgun that was kept in safe hands. Francisco. Neither the campaign nor the vice president’s office attempted to address the apparent discrepancies. In 2005, as San Francisco’s district attorney, she supported legislation to ban handguns in the city.
Guns are deeply ingrained in American culture. According to the Pew Research Center, about one-third of American adults own a gun primarily for personal protection. But Republicans own about twice as many guns as Democrats. A 2023 Monmouth University poll found that the public is divided on whether to ban military-style assault weapons. However, about 6 in 10 American adults support stricter gun laws.
Some experts say Harris is opening the door to much-needed dialogue between the right and the left. They include Dr. Jonathan Metzl, a psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University, who in his recent book, How We Are, argues that unless the left understands gun culture and speaks the language of gun owners, , argue that progress in reducing gun violence is impossible.
“A lot of gun owners who want gun safety want gun safety because they think gun culture will make it safer,” Dr. Metzl said, adding, “Long term, I hope this is the beginning of change for Democrats.” “I have,” he added. In addition to gun deaths, we take gun ownership issues seriously. ”
