Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, is facing significant criticism over her past support for using databases to send police to confiscate firearms from gun owners. This controversial stance, voiced during a 2019 Democratic primary forum, raises serious concerns about the infringement of Second Amendment rights.
Following mass shootings in California and Texas, Harris declared her willingness to take executive action to implement stringent gun control measures. These included comprehensive background checks, cracking down on gun dealers, and banning the import of assault weapons. As California’s attorney general, Harris allowed police to “knock on the doors of people” on a state list of prohibited gun owners to seize their firearms.
“We sent law enforcement out to take those guns because we have to deal with this on all levels,” Harris stated, a remark that has sparked alarm among gun rights advocates and constitutionalists.
In March, Harris launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, aimed at supporting state red flag laws. These laws enable the temporary confiscation of firearms from individuals deemed a danger through a civil judicial process.
However, nearly 20 GOP state attorneys general have opposed the ERPO initiative, arguing that it violates Second Amendment rights without proper due process. They wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, stating, “The solution to gun violence is not more bureaucracy, and it is certainly not parting otherwise law-abiding men and women from their right to self-defense.”
Gun control advocates like John Feinblatt of Everytown have praised Harris’s efforts. Feinblatt noted her leadership in the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, where she worked to eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, ban assault weapons, and expand background checks.
Nonetheless, Harris’s stance appears to be shifting. Unnamed advisers suggest she no longer supports a mandatory buyback of civilian-owned assault weapons, a significant deviation from her 2020 campaign policies.
