In a pitiful attempt to align with Republicans and gun owners, Vice President Kamala Harris is singing a different tune on firearm control than we typically see from Democrats. Despite this, it’s clear that her message is still filled with the usual Democratic deception. Ironically, she asserts to be ‘in favor of the Second Amendment,’ a position almost laughable from someone who consistently promotes restrictive gun policies.
This rhetoric of Harris brings us back to the 1990s when President Bill Clinton pushed for an assault weapons ban, utterly ignoring the concerns of House Democrats that such a vote could cost them their positions. Their fears turned out to be on the money, as the poorly thought-through ban contributed to Democrats losing the House for the first time in four decades. The ban eventually expired, and Democrats have since been scrambling to find a winning gun control narrative.
Seemingly learning nothing from this historical lesson, Kamala Harris steps onto the stage armed with yet another problematic gun control stance. Her careful co-option of Republican language, falsely promising Americans the ‘freedom to be safe from gun violence,’ is a thinly veiled attempt to retain a fervent desire for control while appealing to a broader base. The sheer audacity of her comments is enough to raise eyebrows, given her history of supporting intensely restrictive gun policies.
Despite efforts to align herself with Second Amendment liberties, Harris’ intentions are transparently self-serving. She continues to insist on the reinstatement of the lapsed assault weapons ban, a step that would effectively undermine the very amendment she claims to support. The twisted logic behind this stance merely amplifies the inconsistency at the core of Harris’ political message.
At a White House ceremony last month, where President Joe Biden signed two headers of executive orders related to gun safety, Harris stepped up her failing attempts to sound like a gun advocate. ‘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,’ she asserted, followed swiftly by, ‘I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.’ These contradictory statements only reaffirm the Democrats’ doomed agenda on gun control.
Harris’ attempt to embed her gun control message within her ‘freedom’ campaign is one more glaring, under-hand tactic to manipulate public perception. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, she mentioned several freedoms, including the ‘freedom to live safe from gun violence.’ Sadly enough, this is just another smokescreen hiding the Democrats’ intention to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights.
The politics surrounding gun safety have indeed altered dramatically since the 1994 midterms when various pro-gun Democrats were ejected from the office. However, it’s debatable whether these changes have been for the better. Leading figures such as Joshua M. Horwitz, currently teaching gun violence prevention and advocacy at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, illustrate the shifting focus within the Democratic party from respecting Second Amendment rights to advocating for heavy-handed gun control.
In a somewhat predictable fashion, Democrats leveraged the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 to renew calls for an assault weapons ban, folding it into broader gun safety legislation debates. This attempt to utilize tragedy to further their restrictive agenda falls into the typical pattern of Democratic manipulation and sensationalism – an unfortunate reality of legislative discourse today.
In 2022, Congress passed the first gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, once again signed into law by Biden. However, the Democrats’ narrow vision on gun control refuses to recognize that their policies could potentially have more harmful impacts than they purport to prevent, especially among law-abiding citizens who need firearms for self-defense.
While Harris might think she is cleverly positioning herself on gun control by using Republican language, she is only alienating more of her base. As she boldly touts her firearm ownership, those on the left may feel she is normalizing a reality they would rather suppress – a country where more guns exist than people. Harris’ commitment to satisfy everyone only results in satisfying no one.
This faux-promotion of gun ownership by Harris may appear to be a breakthrough but is more likely a thinly veiled Machiavellian tactic aimed at gaining political points. Despite this, it remains a fact that gun ownership is ingrained in American culture and valued by a significant section of society – mostly for personal protection.
It appears that, in her calculated public relations stunt, Harris has conveniently forgotten to mention that Republicans still overwhelmingly dominate gun ownership, a statistic Harris conveniently skims over. It’s as if Harris is ignorant of the simple fact that the majority of law-abiding gun owners are Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the Second Amendment.
Perplexingly, Harris asserts that by promoting an inconsistent and confusing stance on gun control, she is creating an opening for much-needed dialogue between the right and the left. Whether or not this tactic is successful remains to be seen. Still, one thing is clear: the debate continues to rage, and the Democrats are far from reaching a concrete and universally acceptable standpoint.
One wonders, therefore, whether this new pitch by Harris, filled with contradictions and attempts to co-opt Republican ideology, is a genuine attempt at bridging divisions or just more political trickery. Will her repeated pushes for far-reaching gun control measures end up being politically advantageous, or will they ultimately expose the deep-seated hypocrisy at the heart of the Democratic position?
The bottom line is this: while Democrats consistently chastise Republicans for their ‘gun-loving’ mentality, it’s clear there’s no attempt to understand why the Second Amendment is so highly valued among citizens. Instead, leaders like Harris take these misleading, politically convenient stances that contribute more to the swirling chaos than any productive dialogue on gun control. Should Americans trust a leadership team that consistently fails to provide clear and rational policies on such a critical issue?