UNITED STATES – A new approach. A little less than a month before the American presidential election, Kamala Harris recalled Monday, October 8 in an interview with CBS that she is the owner of a firearm. “I’ve had a Glock for a while”she said, with a smile on her lips, before specifying that she had trained to use it on a shooting range. A political strategy that denotes the Democratic tradition, based on a desire to regulate firearms.
This is not the first time that the vice-president has proudly claimed to have a weapon. In recent weeks, she has made numerous statements on this subject, particularly during one of the most important meetings of the campaign: the September 10 debate against Donald Trump. To cut short her opponent’s claims that she would ban guns nationwide if elected, Harris firmly stated: “Tim Walz and I both own firearms. We will not confiscate anyone’s weapons.”, as you can (re)see in the video above.
Ten days later, the Democratic candidate also confided to journalist Oprah Winfrey, laughing: “I am the owner of a gun myself (…) If someone forces entry into my home, they will be shot.” This statement, which came shortly after the Democratic candidate hugged a young girl seriously injured by bullets during a shooting in her high school, caused a moment of unease in the public. “I probably shouldn’t have said that… My team will have to deal with it,” she concluded, still laughing.
Convince a wider electorate
However, if they contrast with past positions of Kamala Harris, these statements are absolutely not said at random. By recalling her career as a prosecutor and claiming to still be the owner of a weapon today “to ensure (s)his safety”, the Democratic candidate wants to show herself closer to her subject… and to the Americans. While moving forward on a ridge line, by not abandoning the promotion of better supervision of access to weapons as well as a ban on assault weapons.
“This speech will attract a lot of people, like the Michigan hunter (and his wife who perhaps hunts too), who know that we don’t need an AR-15 (a weapon of war, editor’s note) to hunt a deer”, esteemed by the New York Times pollster Celinda Lake, who works as a strategist for the Democratic Party. With her speech, the Vice-President of the United States hopes to attract moderate and undecided voters, particularly in key states.
Except that this strategy is not without risk: speaking so openly about one’s weapon could in turn destabilize the electorate loyal to the Democratic bloc. He could indeed be worried to see the next president of the United States normalize the ownership of firearms, moreover in a country already having more firearms than inhabitants. The subject is all the more worrying for part of the electorate since in 2024, more than 400 mass shootings, that is to say during which four or more people were injured, not including the shooter, took place in the country, according to the NGO’s count Gun Violence Archive.
Don’t get stuck in stereotypes
The fact remains that this display of her possession of a weapon allows Kamala Harris to combat the stereotypes which weigh on Democrats, perceived as anti-firearms in a country which has enshrined in its Constitution the right to be armed. Stereotypes on which Republicans do not hesitate to rely to discredit it, Donald Trump and his allies regularly accuse it of wanting to restrict the individual freedoms of Americans by taking away their rifles and pistols. So what could be more effective than claiming to be the owner of a weapon yourself?
The Democratic candidate goes even further, by placing this notion of freedom at the heart of her campaign, as Republicans usually do more. With one difference however, because in Kamala Harris’ campaign, the ” freedom » does not translate into the right of Americans to arm themselves as they wish, but on the contrary by the right “ to be safe from armed violence”, she explains in her campaign clip.
To do this, she promises to continue the stricter supervision of “ second amendment », protecting the famous right to bear a weapon, at the federal level. Work already started by Joe Biden, whose mandate was marked by the adoption of Bipartisan Safer Communities Actwhich requires criminal background checks for gun buyers aged 18 to 21, regardless of where or how they purchase their weapons.
Conversely, Donald Trump positions himself as a true “defender of the second amendment”so much so that his campaign team created a coalition called « Gun Owners for Trump », rallying his pro-gun voters. It remains to be seen which vision of freedom will succeed in winning the most votes on November 5.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.fr
