August 12, 2020
For immediate release

Joe Biden’s VP Pick Cements Shift to the Militant, Radically Anti-Gun Left

Springfield, VA – Gun Owners of America (GOA) Board Member Sam Paredes released the following statement after Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate:

“Joe Biden couldn’t have done more to shift his campaign to the militant, anti-gun Left than by selecting California Senator Kamala Harris to join his run for the White House.

“Ironically, while Senator Harris tries to champion the ‘little guy,’ she has supported gun laws that have been used to deny honest individuals their right to keep and bear arms.

“Senator Harris’ record on the Second Amendment should be viewed as a direct threat to every gun owner in the country.  Both her words and actions as an elected politician reveal the extreme objective of her politics.”

Consider Harris’ record on the right to keep and bear arms:

• Harris supports using the power of the presidency to impose gun control measures. She unapologetically stated that she would take executive action on gun control if Congress didn’t toughen federal gun control policy.  “So I will apologize to no one, both in terms of what I am prepared to do but also the action that I intend to take, to say if Congress doesn’t act, I by executive action will act,” she said.
• Harris supports a forced buyback of semi-automatic firearms, stating “We have to get those guns off the streets.” She also supported statements by Beto O’Rourke’s “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s.”
• Harris said she would ban states from enacting “stand your ground” laws, which allows homeowners to defend themselves with a firearm rather than retreat against an imminent threat of murder, rape, or bodily harm.
• Tweeted she would “revoke the licenses of gun manufacturers & dealers that break the law, require anyone who sells more than 5 guns/yr to run a background check on all gun sales, and ban the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons.”
• While Attorney General in California, Harris supported the ban on sales of almost all semi-automatic centerfire rifles and required that all existing semi-auto rifles be registered as California “Assault Weapons.”
• Also during her tenure as Attorney General, she fought to preserve the “good cause” requirement which allows the state to prevent a qualified individual from carrying concealed — a requirement that has been used to discriminate against Latinos and women in the state.

“The media quickly began their fawning over Harris as a ‘pragmatic moderate’ and ‘having a centrist’ record, but the pro-gun community stands in sharp opposition to the gun-control agenda of Vice President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Paredes concluded.  “Their absence of knowledge about the Constitution and the honest community of gun owners in the USA is unconscionable and ignorant.”

Sam Paredes, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over two million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.

— GOA —