Harris Says She’s ‘In Favor’ of Second Amendment, Warns of Trump Threats to Gun Rights

Kamala Harris is running away from her long-held positions on guns and gun control so fast that by the time Election Day rolls around I half-expect to see her standing at a lectern hoisting up a Kentucky long rifle and yelling “from my cold, dead hands”. 

Two decades ago Harris was backing a handgun ban in San Francisco. Heck, two years ago she said the Bruen decision defied “common sense and the Constitution.” Her calls for an “assault weapons” ban were a regular talking point in her stump speech as recently as a few weeks ago. She has the backing of every major gun control group in the country, yet she’s now trying to portray herself as a champion of the Second Amendment. 

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday claimed Donald Trump will try to gut the First and Second Amendments if elected — even though she herself has a record of cracking down on free speech and backing gun restrictions.
“When he says he wants to terminate the Constitution of the United States? You know what that would mean? In the Constitution of the United States is your Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure, your Fifth Amendment right [to due process], your Sixth Amendment right to an attorney. Right?” Harris said in an interview with the Club Shay Shay podcast.
“The First Amendment [right to free speech], the Second Amendment [right to bear arms],” the Democratic nominee continued, specifically noting that she is “in favor” of the Second Amendment.
“He wants to terminate the Constitution of the United States,” Harris said.

Harris is worried that Trump will terminate the Fourth Amendment? How about her 2007 statement talking about a gun storage ordinance in San Francisco, when she said “just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affairs.” 

Sounds like a Fourth Amendment violation to me. And Harris’ record on the First Amendment is sketchy as well. 

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the White House “pressured” the company to “censor” some content about the pandemic.
Harris also called on Twitter to suspend Trump’s account in 2019 and said she wanted to keep social-media platforms “accountable” for hateful posts.
“Kamala just claimed that President Trump will take away the 1st amendment and 2nd amendment,” the Trump “War Room” account on X wrote Monday. “Her administration censored people who criticized their covid policies — She is on camera multiple times saying she wants gun confiscation. What a joke.”

I wish it were a joke, but this is no laughing matter. For decades Kamala Harris has advocated for some of the most extreme anti-2A positions someone can take. She wanted a ban on handguns in San Francisco. She supported a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and urged the Supreme Court not to recognize an individual right to keep and bear arms. Five years ago she called for a ban on so-called assault weapons, and said a mandatory “buyback” of those guns was a “good idea”. 

People are allowed to change their mind, of course, but there’s nothing to indicate she’s actually had a change of heart outside of her vague and vacuous statements on the campaign trail about supporting the Second Amendment. Harris may say she’s “in favor” of the Second Amendment, but she’s not willing to say whether she still believes it doesn’t protect an individual right to keep and bear arms; or, if she changed her mind, when and why she did so. 

That would be one helluva conversion story, so why haven’t we heard it from Harris? The obvious answer is that she hasn’t changed at all. Her values are still the same, and she’s never valued the right to keep and bear arms. Throughout her political career, she’s seen the exercise of the Second Amendment as a danger to be addressed and a problem to be solved, not a right to be protected, secured, and defended. Now she wants to portray herself as a champion of the Constitution; not because of any deeply-held belief in the Second Amendment, but because of her deep desire to win the presidency. Voters should see through her disguise, but 2A advocates need to educate their friends, family, and fellow gun owners on Harris’ long history of anti-gun extremism until the voting has stopped and the ballots are counted.