According to a 2005 article in the San Jose Mercury News, Vice President Kamala Harris supported a total ban on handguns in San Francisco, California, when she was district attorney there.
Harris endorses San Francisco proposition Bill H would completely ban the possession of handguns in San Francisco, with some exceptions, and would prohibit the sale, possession, manufacture, and distribution of all firearms and ammunition within the city. According to Speaking to the San Jose Mercury News, she has supported the bill in the past, which contrasts with her recent statements in which she claimed she wouldn't “take away anyone's guns” if elected president in 2024.
The ballot measure passed with 58% of the vote but quickly faced legal challenges from groups including the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA). According to To reload. The proposal was summarily struck down in court in 2006 because it was found to violate the Second Amendment. According to To the city attorney's office. (Related: Report shows liberals are increasingly owning guns)
“San Francisco has been a pioneer in proposing gun control at the local level, and we have never met a gun control law that we didn't like,” Chuck Michel, president and general counsel of the CRPA, who was instrumental in fighting the bill, told The Reload. “Prop. H was a masterpiece.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 20, 2024. Harris spoke to a sold-out crowd of 10,500 people during the rally. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The bill would have given San Francisco residents the right to give up their handguns without penalty by January 1, 2006. Only “security guards, peace officers, or active members of the United States Government” would be allowed to own handguns.
“Military”
Handguns are the firearm most frequently used in self-defense, with handguns being used in 65.9% of defensive firearm use incidents. According to A 2021 study by Georgetown University found that there are an average of 1.7 million defensive gun uses per year.
During her 2019 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Harris also supported mandatory firearm buybacks for so-called “assault weapons.” But experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that confiscation of so-called “assault weapons” would likely violate the Second Amendment because it would require a fundamental ban.
She continues to support a ban on assault weapons and requiring dealers to conduct background checks on customers if they sell more than five guns per year. According to He wrote an article for The New York Times in July.
The Harris campaign declined to comment publicly to the DCNF.
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