By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In a new report on the dramatic differences between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump on Second Amendment issues, CBS News is acknowledging that gun control “is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics.”
“Trump has told voters Harris ‘wants to confiscate your guns,’ a point Harris denies,” says the CBS report. “She wants to see stronger gun control laws on the books but also says she’s a gun owner.”
Grassroots gun rights activists look at comments like this about Harris’ revelation she owns a Glock pistol and laugh. Having a pistol stuck in a drawer or lock box doesn’t make anyone a gun owner anymore than having a guitar in the corner makes someone the new Peter Frampton, the Second Amendment community intimates.
Harris has supported “mandatory buyback” of so-called “assault weapons.” According to gun rights leaders such as Alan Gottlieb at the Second Amendment Foundation, “mandatory buyback” translates to “compensated confiscation.” Her campaign says she has backpedaled on that position.
When Trump was in office, his administration banned “bump stocks,” but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ban earlier this year.
According to the CBS report, “Harris says she favors the Second Amendment.” To the grassroots gun rights activist, such a statement amounts to lip service.
Harris oversees the Biden administration’s White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, a bureaucracy Joe Biden’s staff created which is a thinly-disguised gun control lobbying group.
CBS notes her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is a shooter and hunter. He held an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association until he supported tightening down on gun laws in 2018 following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. After that, NRA reduced his grade to “F.”
According to the network report, if Harris wins Nov. 5, she will work to ban so-called “assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” require “universal background checks” and support “red flag laws.”
By contrast, Trump firmly believes in the “God-given” right of self-defense, says CBS, which quotes his campaign’s promise he will defend the rights of gun owners. He has indicated support for armed teachers or retired military personnel as a line of defense against school shootings.
CBS notes, “Trump’s campaign said in a statement that he would ‘terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.’”
Trump has been appearing annually at the NRA conventions for the past several years, although his conviction earlier this year in New York makes him ineligible to own or possesses firearms or ammunition, but that conviction is on appeal.
What the 2024 campaign has revealed—or perhaps reminded gun owners—is the continuing media bias about guns. One of the best examples comes from The Guardian, which continues to refer to gun control proponents as “gun safety advocates.”
The article isn’t even subtle, noting in a headline, “If Trump wins the election, this is what’s at stake.”
The Guardian criticizes adoption in Republican states of permitless carry laws “despite research suggesting such laws can increase rates of gun violence.”
However, the “research” to which The Guardian article refers comes from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It advocates for repeal of “stand-your-ground” laws, restricting concealed carry and prohibiting open carry of firearms.
The “research” asserts, “Open Carry Laws May Contribute to Armed Intimidation, Political Violence, and Insurrectionism,” but then acknowledges, there is “limited academic research examining the impacts of lax open carry laws on armed imitation.” Then the site argues, “there are a growing number of scenarios where open carry has escalated conflict at protests and rallies, contributed to intimidation of government workers and citizens, and promoted the agenda of far-right hate groups.”
The Guardian refers to a 2023 Gallup poll which revealed, “56% of Americans believe gun laws should be made stricter while 31% believe they should be kept the same. Only 12% of Americans favor less strict gun regulations.”
Second Amendment advocates have maintained that constitutional rights are not subject to opinion polls.
