Kamala Harris Says She Owns a Gun to Shoot Down Trump’s Debate Claim

Kamala Harris hit back at Donald Trump during their debate on Thursday night by reminding him that she is a gun owner.

After Trump accused the vice president of having a “plan to confiscate everybody’s gun,” Harris fired back by saying that she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, both own firearms.

“This business about taking everyone’s guns away—Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Harris said. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away, so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”

Harris has previously spoken about owning a gun. “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do—for personal safety,” she said in 2019 while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. “I was a career prosecutor.” At the time, one of her campaign aides told CNN the weapon is a handgun that had been purchased years earlier.

After the debate, the National Rifle Association attacked Harris in a post on X, contrasting her line about “not taking anybody’s guns away” with a post she made last week calling for more action to be taken to reduce gun violence. “We must pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and red flag laws,” Harris wrote last Friday.

Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via Getty Images

Walz once enjoyed the support of the NRA before becoming an outspoken critic of the group in the wake of a school shooting in Florida in 2018, calling it the “biggest single obstacle to passing the most basic measures to prevent gun violence in America.”

“Kamala Harris and I are both gun owners,” Walz wrote on X after the debate. “We’re not going to take away your Second Amendment rights — we’re going to prevent your kids from getting shot at school.”

His comment came the week after two 14-year-old children and two teachers were shot dead at a school in Winder, Georgia.