Analysis: Harris’s Previous Support for Handgun Confiscation Raises Questions, Could Sway Election [Member Exclusive]

Kamala Harris backed a complete ban on handguns early in her profession, which complicates her marketing campaign’s message on weapons and possibly even the trajectory of the race.

On Tuesday, we reported that Harris supported Proposition H in 2005 as San Francisco’s District Lawyer. The measure would have barred practically all metropolis residents from promoting, shopping for, or possessing pistols had it not been struck down by a number of California courts. Her help for it opens up a slew of yet-to-be-answered questions for the candidate and the presidential race.

Earlier than this week, Harris and Donald Trump alike had settled into what appeared to be their ultimate gun messaging headed into November. Trump has downplayed the problem whereas chiding gun homeowners for not voting in sufficiently big numbers and attacking Harris for eager to take folks’s weapons. Harris has responded by pointing to her personal gun possession as proof she gained’t take anybody’s weapons and simply needs to ban the sale of assault weapons, require common background checks, and implement “purple flag” legal guidelines.

“She has a plan to confiscate everyone’s gun,” Trump mentioned throughout this month’s debate.

“This enterprise about taking everybody’s weapons away; Tim Walz and I are each gun homeowners,” Harris responded a couple of minutes later. “We’re not taking anybody’s weapons away.”

Whereas many, together with Oprah, had been shocked to listen to Harris say she owned a gun throughout the debate, she had talked about it as soon as earlier than.

“I’m a gun proprietor, and I personal a gun for in all probability the rationale lots of people do – for private security,” she mentioned throughout an April 2019 occasion. “I used to be a profession prosecutor.”

A Harris aide informed CNN on the time that Harris’s gun was a pistol, and she or he’d had it for years at that time.

So, if that’s the case, when did she purchase her pistol? Did she personal it when she backed Proposition H?

If she did personal a handgun in 2005, did she plan to show it in? Or did she consider she’d be lined by the active-duty legislation enforcement exception? If she purchased her gun later, why did she purchase a handgun after looking for to ban them? Why not purchase a shotgun or rifle as a substitute?

Additionally, when did she change her thoughts about taking away folks’s handguns? Why did she change her thoughts?

And, most significantly for the 2024 race, will any of this matter?

Handgun bans had been already unpopular in 2005, which is probably going why different outstanding gun-control advocates shied away from Proposition H. The Supreme Courtroom formally dominated Washington, DC’s handgun ban unconstitutional simply three years later, shortly after a California appeals court docket rejected the San Francisco ban. Gallup’s polling reveals they’ve change into more and more unpopular since then, with simply 27 % of People backing one in 2023.

In 2016, I reported on audio from a Hillary Clinton fundraiser the place she mentioned the Supreme Courtroom was fallacious in hanging down DC’s ban. That story broke at an identical time in that race.

The NRA ended up pouring tens of tens of millions of {dollars} into advertisements attacking Clinton for these feedback. She misplaced, and in a race as shut as 2016 was, it’s troublesome to conclude that the story didn’t have a major impression on the result–particularly in additional pro-gun states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.

2024 is shaping as much as be yet one more shut race. Donald Trump has many vulnerabilities like he did again then, together with that he’s the primary candidate prohibited from proudly owning weapons to win a significant occasion nomination, however he has an actual probability of successful the presidency like he did again then. This story presents practically the identical drawback for Harris, maybe even a much bigger one, than the 2016 story did for Clinton.

So, it might be a type of main tales that shake up the race.

However there are additionally causes to assume it gained’t be. For one, Harris has already confronted controversy over her previous help for confiscating some weapons and is actively attempting to assuage considerations over that. Whether or not she’s doing sufficient by simply stating she gained’t take folks’s weapons is a really open query, however she’s nonetheless doing greater than Clinton ever did to reply.

Voters have additionally constantly ranked weapons as a mid-to-bottom-tier challenge on this race. Regardless of the stark distinction in approaches by the candidates and a not too long ago high-profile faculty taking pictures, polls present voters have stored their consideration on different points just like the financial system or defending democracy.

Moreover, the NRA is in no form to flood the airwaves with advertisements highlighting her help for Proposition H. It’ll be a more durable raise than the Clinton advertisements anyway since video of her commenting on the ban has but to floor. However the NRA simply doesn’t have anyplace close to the funds to spend on advertisements in opposition to Harris because it did in opposition to Clinton.

However this story doesn’t want to alter 1,000,000 minds to swing the election. The margins in every swing are unlikely so as to add as much as anyplace close to that. So, the bar is considerably decrease than that. Whether or not Harris ignoring the story can preserve it out of these voters’ minds or Trump and the NRA can get them to concentrate on it might make the distinction.