WASHINGTON — When President Bill Clinton asked House Democrats to pass an assault weapons ban in 1994, their leaders begged him to back off, fearing the vote would cost them their seats. They were right. Democrats lost the House for the first time in 40 years, blamed the assault weapons ban, and let it expire. They have struggled ever since to figure out a winning gun safety message.
Now comes Vice President Kamala Harris, who is talking about guns in a new way for a Democrat — by co-opting the language of Republicans.
She has promised Americans “the freedom to be safe from gun violence,” including in her first campaign ad, and told Oprah Winfrey that she owned a gun and that if someone breaks into her home, “they’re getting shot.” In doing so, Harris has upended Democratic stereotypes and reframed the conversation around guns — even as she vows to reinstate the lapsed ban, a long-sought goal of many in the party.
“It is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” Harris declared last month at a White House ceremony in which President Biden signed two executive orders related to gun safety. “I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.”
Advocates of gun safety legislation say the vice president has leaned into the issue like few presidential candidates before her. Democrats hope her message will appeal to a constituency that is critical to winning the election: moderate, undecided voters in swing states — especially suburban women, who are deeply concerned about school shootings.
“It won’t get the right-wing male Trump voter,” who makes voting decisions based on the endorsements of the National Rifle Association, said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “But I think the freedom narrative is going to bring over a lot of people like the Michigan hunter — and his wife may hunt, too — who doesn’t believe you need an AR-15 to hunt a deer.”
That narrative fits into the campaign’s broader theme of freedom, which Harris articulated during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
“In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake,” she said then, ticking off examples that included “the freedom to love who you love”; “to breathe clean air and drink clean water”; and “the freedom to vote.” At the top of the list was the “freedom to live safe from gun violence.”
In 2022, Congress passed the first gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, which Biden — a sponsor of the original 1994 assault weapons ban — signed into law. He followed by creating the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Harris leads.
The statistics — and the experiences of Americans — are making the case for Harris. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 132 Americans die each day from firearm injuries. The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun fatalities, says there have been more than 400 mass shootings — defined as a shooting in which four or more people are injured, not including the shooter — this year alone.
That is making it harder for Republicans like former president Donald Trump to run on a gun rights message, said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist.
“That doesn’t mean that they won’t, or that people don’t care about gun rights, because they do,” Ayres said. “But arguing that everybody needs an AR-15 for their personal protection is a stretch.”
The NRA is a shell of its former self, hobbled by allegations of fraud and the resignation of its longtime executive director, Wayne LaPierre, amid revelations that he spent vast sums on finely tailored suits and lavish travel. So Harris may simply be in the right place at the right time to talk about tighter gun laws.
Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist who has been critical of the organization, said Harris was wise to spotlight her gun ownership, given that 140 million Americans own firearms. Gun ownership surged during the coronavirus pandemic among African Americans and particularly Black women — a key constituency for Harris.
In talking openly about being a gun owner, Harris, a former prosecutor, is challenging not only the stereotype for Democrats, but also for female candidates. The message also dovetails with that of her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, a hunter who once received an “A” rating from the NRA and now gets an “F” from the group.
“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners,” Harris said during the recent presidential debate. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.” It was a retort to Trump, who said the vice president had “a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun.”
But there is a risk to Harris in talking so openly about owning a weapon: She might alienate voters, particularly on the left, who fear she is normalizing gun ownership in a nation where there are already more guns than people.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.