After speaking at the funeral of a woman killed in the Buffalo, New York grocery store shooting, Vice President Kamala Harris called for a ban on “assault weapons”.
“We are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine. We know what works on this,” Harris said Saturday outside of Air Force Two at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
“Let’s have an assault weapons ban,” she added.
Harris called the firearm a “weapon of war” and said it has “no place in civil society”.
She was present to speak at the funeral for Ruth Whitfield, 86, one of the people killed at a Tops supermarket on May 14.
The gunman, identified as Payton Gendron, 18, is a self-proclaimed white supremacist.
Harris said the U.S. is experiencing an “epidemic of hate”.
During the funeral, she said Scripture teaches about strength, and that strength is based on who “you lift up,” not “who you beat down”.
“And it means then also, in that strength, understanding we will not allow small people to create fear in our communities that we will not be afraid to stand up for what is right, to speak up even when it may be difficult to hear and speak,” she added. “Enough is enough”.
When using the term “assault weapons,” Harris was most likely referring to weapons like AR-15-style rifles, which were used in both the Buffalo and Texas shootings.
“You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed?” Harris asked reporters before getting on a plane. “It was designed for a specific purpose – to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society”.
“Congress must take action and have the courage to ensure these attacks do not happen again. Expand background checks. Renew the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Get this done,” she tweeted.