Trump, Harris far apart on interpretation of 2nd Amendment

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have opposing views on a wide array of issues, among them Americans' Second Amendment rights to own firearms.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election, has referred to himself as the “the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you’ve ever had in the White House.”

Even after a would-be assassin attempted to kill Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, his campaign said the Republican nominee for president would protect Americans' constitutional rights to own and carry guns. Instead, the campaign said, policy positions on reducing gun violence should center on treating those with mental illness.

Harris, on the other hand, has spent most of her political career supporting additional gun restrictions.

“We, who believe that every person should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence, will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks, and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said at her first campaign stop after President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed his vice president to be his successor, according to The Trace, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on gun violence. Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Several gun restriction groups joined in a joint news release last week to endorse Harris for president. They include GIFFORDS, Brady and Team ENOUGH, Community Justice Action Fund, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.

"Gun extremists have a dream ticket with Trump and [Trump vice presidential running mate and U.S. Sen. J.D.] Vance, and our volunteers stand ready to do everything in our power to elect Vice President Harris back into the White House,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in the joint statement.

The National Rifle Association, the nation's largest pro-Second Amendment group, again endorsed Trump in 2024, as is it did in 2016 and 2020.

"A second term for President Trump is a victory for the Second Amendment. NRA members recognize that we are the torchbearers for liberty, and we are in a generational fight for freedom," the organization said in a statement. "With President Trump, we had a powerful champion in the White House who always fought for our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and come November, we will return him to the Oval Office.”

Harris' support of gun ban laws isn't limited to red flag laws and assault weapon bans, however.

When she was San Francisco's district attorney, Harris led a group of 18 prosecutors who urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Washington DC’s handgun ban, arguing the a total ban on handguns was not unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the handgun ban was in fact unconstitutional.

And during a 2023 meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia, Harris praised Australia’s gun restriction laws, which state that gun ownership is a privilege and Australians must demonstrate a “genuine reason” for owning them. Self-defense does not qualify as a reason to own a firearm.

"Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way – as our friends in Australia have demonstrated," Harris said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Polling has shown that a slight majority of Americans either own a gun or live with someone who does. A November 2023 poll from NBC News found that 52% of Americans do so.