Opinion
By Larry Keane
It was quite surprising to hear it when it happened but Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, was fact checked in real time about the real drivers of criminal gun violence. She was tripped up on her answer because the journalist pressing her wasn’t buying the vice president’s tired talking points.
It happened during an interview of the vice president at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) after one of the questioners asked Vice President Harris about her gun control platform.
For those needing any reminding, the Biden-Harris administration has been the most fervently anti-gun administration in history. Vice President Harris, as the administration’s “gun czar,” has infamously instituted a “whole-of-government” attack on the firearm and ammunition industry and the Second Amendment. She is colluding with gun control groups – who literally operate out of her office. As President Joe Biden’s “gun czar,” Harris has continually failed to bring criminals to account for their crimes.
Vice President Kamala Harris tries to claim to voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and other close-polling states that she “isn’t taking anyone’s guns away from them” while in the same breath calling for a ban and confiscation of an entire class of lawfully made and legally purchased firearms – the most popular rifle in America. That’s just about the extent of her “plan” to reduce criminal gun violence. But finally, she received pushback for specifics that voters deserve to hear.
Please Answer the Question
Whenever Vice President Kamala Harris has been asked about criminals committing gun crimes, her response is predictably always the same. She calls for more gun control on law-abiding Americans, lists a kitchen sink full of anti-Second Amendment talking points and blames Congress for inaction. This is despite the fact that for the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration, Democrats controlled both chambers in Congress and The White House. She never mentions that not even all Democrats in the U.S. Senate supported a bill to reinstate, and expanded, a so-called “assault weapons” ban. That doesn’t stop the vice president from repeating those calls. But the interviewers at the NABJ wanted more specifics from her.
“In cities like Philadelphia, handguns are responsible for most homicides and violent crime,” NPR’s Tonya Mosely began. “How will you address the issue of the use of handguns because a push for an assault weapons ban only addresses, um, a significant but small part of the problem?”
The vice president began her answer by repeating the talking point that she and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were both gun owners. She claimed “we’re not trying to take anyone’s guns away from them. But we do need an assault weapons ban.” As she continued to filibuster her answer about how Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) need to be banned and universal background checks must be implemented, Mosely interrupted and pressed her further.
“Respectfully, we do understand that. But I’m asking specifically about handguns because many of those handguns aren’t purchased at places that run background checks. In many of those instances those handguns aren’t bought lawfully.”
The vice president was stumped. She had no response to the logical reasoning that the firearm industry continues to highlight when calls for gun control are made – that criminals do not follow the law. NSSF has reported on Department of Justice data that shows 90 percent of firearms used by criminals in the commission of their crime were obtained through illicit means and not at a firearm retailer. It’s also one of the main reasons why universal background checks won’t work. That and the fact that a national firearm registry is prohibited by law under the Gun Control Act of 1986 and the Brady Act of 1993.
Shift the Conversation
Vice President Harris noticeably paused and shifted her answer to another gun control cliché – gun shows.
“It’s why I have also been adamant about for years, in fact, I myself have protested at a gun show – probably ten, fifteen years ago,” the vice president said. “But the gun show loophole and why we need to close that. Because what ends up happening is that gun shows at flea markets, gun dealers are not, under existing law in the past, required to register their sales.”
According to the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, data reveals that of prison inmates who possessed a gun while committing a crime, fewer than 1 percent (0.8) had obtained the firearm at a gun show. In addition, firearms that are purchased at a gun show must still be transferred through a federal firearms licensee with a processed FBI NICS verification. The “gun show loophole” the vice president references is a myth.
She began to wrap up her answer by unironically hitting the nail on the head. “And so you are exactly right, that a lot of homicides for example…are committed with illegally purchased guns.”
There’s more in her response but what she did not mention was getting tough on criminals, especially repeat offenders who often get out of jail or are released without even going to jail. She did not mention supporting law enforcement in their role to protect communities and keep neighborhoods safe. In Washington, D.C., for instance, the U.S. attorney’s own recent report reveals as few as 500 identifiable people, many of them involved in neighborhood crews or cliques, are responsible for 70 percent of the city’s shootings.
Prevention
One point the vice president did touch on that the firearm industry agrees with, though approaches in vastly different ways, is crime prevention. It’s why the firearm industry is so serious about the Real Solutions. Safer Communities®. initiatives that have a proven record of reducing firearm thefts from mom and pop retail locations, preventing the illegal purchasing of firearms by straw purchasers and ensuring lawful gun owners understand the importance of and practice safe and responsible firearm storage in the home when their firearms are not in use.
Vice President Kamala Harris will pursue a stringent gun control agenda should she win presidency in November, there’s no question about it. The firearm industry continues to cooperate with law enforcement to try to reduce firearm crimes and tragedies while at the same time respecting Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. Voters across the country must get registered to vote, educate themselves on where the candidates stand on issues and, most importantly, turn out to vote on or before November 5th.
There’s too much at stake. The Second Amendment is on the ballot. Don’t Risk Your Rights – #GUNVOTE®.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
F that crunt!
the only good communists are not alive
You can have her, I won’t get within a 100 miles of her… Too much risk of disease…
I find it troubling that a candidate for president will only talk to/answer BLACK journalists and avoid/dismiss WHITE journalists. Is this what we can expect from a Harris administration? Racial discrimination is wrong, let’s not make it acceptable to only be applicable in one direction as it is becoming now.
I also find this VERY troubling, particularly because SHE AIN”T EVEN BLACK. Eaast Indians are not “black”. She is only pandering to the black fan-base she thiinks she has.
The good news is, in may heavily black and crime-laden areas, the locals are finally beginning to realise the root causes of the violence and wanting tha fixed.
Harris and the rest of her socialist, communist followers know that none of their “crime prevention through banning” will stop crime. They want a completely unarmed populace so that no one can oppose their dictatorship. If the criminals were targeted and stopped, then the rhetoric they keep screaming at the top of their lungs would have been worthless. The fact that 99.5% of law abiding gun owners will never commit a crime involving a firearm, criminals by definition don’t follow the laws that we do.
TRUMP 2024
Her history as prosecutor and then AtG in Commieformula prove that she is soft on criminals. She refused to impose just sentences, letting far too many out on the streets to just do it again, knowing there would be no significant consequences. I read a recent compliation of her presently proposed policies.. no bail, low sentences, etc. We know her background…. Ayers, Willie Brown, UC Berserkeley, marxist and socialist studies.. and I know Marx’ works and ideas. Spent a full year in University studying and analising his works and ideas, under Herbert Marcuse, Final exam for the full year grade… Read more »
If it wasn’t for Willie Brown, and him hiring Harris as his secretary and girlfriend, and then taking her to orgies and passing her around, where she was able to meet other male politicians, and got help to get into various political offices .
If Willie hadn’t hired calamity Kamala, she would still be working as a secretary or bussing tables in a restaurant
Look at her: do you honestly think she could actually make a living on her back or on her knees? And think how much the “Kamala Cackle” would scare away men called “John”…
J6? That was a mild protest and riot with no weapons. If Harris were to try and disarm us, you would see actual bloodshed and the spark of Revolution.
The NSSF is as pro gun as the NRA and Tim Walz. They’re irrelevant.