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Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, vowed five years ago in the 2020 primary cycle that she would ban AR-15s through an executive order.
Harris ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 cycle but was one of the first candidates to withdraw from the contest. At the time, however, she confirmed in one of the debates that she would take “executive action” to ban AR-15s and firearm imports at the start of her administration, disagreeing with then-former Vice President Joe Biden on the course of action.
“Hey Joe, instead of saying that we can’t, let’s say yes we can,” Harris contended, dismissing “the idea that we would wait for this Congress, which has just done nothing.”
Biden then responded that Harris should “check with constitutional scholars,” adding that the commander-in-chief cannot merely declare “you can’t own the following weapons.”
Harris remarked at one town hall event during the primary race that “it is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.” Her firearms platform also called for “near-universal background checks by requiring anyone who sells five or more guns per year to run a background check on all gun sales.”
Harris was recently endorsed by Biden after the commander-in-chief announced he would not seek reelection. Biden chose Harris to lead the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which seeks to “identify new executive actions we can take within our legal authority to reduce gun violence,” as well as the new National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center.
Harris vowed in one of the first speeches of her campaign that she would pass “red flag laws, universal background checks, and an assault weapons ban” if she is elected.
March For Our Lives, a youth gun control organization, announced in a statement that they would endorse Harris, marking the first time they have ever endorsed a candidate. “We need an ardent defender of democracy, a gun violence prevention champion, and a leader who will listen to young people, give us a seat at the table, and fight for our future,” the group declared.
