Kamala Harris is a gun owner. We know that

Kamala Harris’s revelation at the recent presidential debate that she owns a gun surprised some viewers, as the Vice President has spoken relatively little about her personal experiences with owning a firearm over the years.

In response to Donald Trump’s warning that Harris wanted to “confiscate your guns,” the Democratic candidate replied: “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anyone’s guns away. So stop lying about this stuff all the time.”

And on Thursday night, Harris suggested to Oprah Winfrey at a virtual campaign rally in Michigan that she would use her gun to protect herself from intruders: “If anyone breaks into my house, they’re going to get shot.”

Harris’s gun – which one source described as a pistol that would fit in a small purse – is kept securely at her home in Los Angeles, an aide to the vice president told CNN. Harris had mentioned owning a firearm in 2019 during her unsuccessful presidential campaign – that gun, the aide said, is the same one she owns now. As vice president, Harris has primarily resided in Washington at the Naval Observatory, where she does not keep a second firearm.

Harris’ brief explanation four years ago for owning a gun was simple: self-defense.

“I’m a gun owner, and I own a gun probably for the same reason that many other people do — for personal reasons,” Harris, then a senator from California, told reporters in Iowa. “I was a prosecutor.”

A longtime Harris aide from California told CNN that given the people and cases they often deal with in their jobs, it is not unusual for prosecutors to own a firearm for self-defense.

“Many prosecutors have been personally responsible for arresting serious criminals. And unlike the police officers who arrest them, prosecutors do not necessarily own a work-issued firearm,” the aide said. “So it’s not unusual for prosecutors to have home protection.”

(Under California law, in order to purchase a firearm, a resident must generally obtain a firearm safety certificate and receive a demonstration from a certified instructor on how to safely handle the weapon. The rules may be less stringent for some law enforcement officers who wish to purchase a firearm.)

Harris’ office would not say what year she first owned a gun or provide any other details about the gun and her ownership. The Harris campaign declined to comment for this story.

A Harris campaign adviser could not recall the vice president – an outspoken supporter of gun safety measures, including a ban on assault weapons – rehearsing memorized lines about her gun ownership before her debate with Trump. But the adviser told CNN that the biographical details were a “good way for her to show that she respects the Second Amendment” – one of the most contentious issues in American politics.

“It protects her right to own a gun; Tim Walz’s right to own a gun. But she has not deviated from her values ​​on assault rifles and assault weapons,” the aide said.

As a prosecutor in California, Harris handled numerous cases involving violent crimes.

There was the infamous “scalping” case from the 1990s, when a man who scalped his girlfriend with a kitchen knife was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 12 years. “That’s appropriate for what he did,” Harris, then an assistant district attorney in Alameda County, said of Frankie Vanloock’s conviction. “The way this crime was committed was incredibly sadistic.”

Harris worked on countless child abuse cases, which she said in a 2003 interview “take a lot of energy.” She described them as particularly difficult to prosecute because the only eyewitnesses are often the victims themselves. In her memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” she recalls a “quiet six-year-old girl” who was abused by her 16-year-old brother.

“My job was to sit with this sweet little child and see if I could get her to tell me her story – and if she would be able to tell it again in front of a jury. I spent a lot of time with her, playing with toys, playing games, trying to build a relationship of trust,” Harris wrote. “But no matter how hard I tried, I knew – I just knew – that it was impossible for her to explain to a jury what she had endured.”

Harris has tried many other gruesome domestic violence and sex crimes cases over the years that have shocked local communities, including the case of Francisco Ortiz, who was found guilty in 2005 of killing his girlfriend and setting her body on fire; the case of Frank Green, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after being accused of brutally beating, strangling and throwing his estranged girlfriend out of a sixth-story window; and the case of Dr. Jose Rosas, who was convicted of sexually abusing three of his patients.

Trump, Harris’ Republican opponent, is also an avowed gun owner. But CNN reported in June that the New York Police Department was preparing to revoke the former president’s gun license after he was indicted on criminal charges in New York. In addition, his license to carry a concealed weapon was quietly suspended. Two of the three pistols he was allowed to carry were turned over to the New York Police Department earlier this year.

Walz, the Minnesota governor and Harris’ running mate, is also a gun owner. Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, have repeatedly attacked Democrats as staunch opponents of the Second Amendment. Both Harris and Walz are trying to prove that supporting the right to bear arms and gun safety laws are not mutually exclusive.

“I’ve personally prosecuted murder cases. I’ve personally seen autopsies. I’ve personally seen what assault weapons do to the human body, and so I firmly believe that it’s consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say we need a ban on assault weapons,” Harris said this week in an interview with Philadelphia television station WPVI. “They are literally tools of war.”

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