As San Francisco’s district lawyer, Kamala Harris instructed authorized gun house owners in her group that authorities may “stroll into” their properties to examine whether or not they had been storing their firearms correctly beneath a brand new legislation she helped draft.
“We’ll require accountable behaviors amongst all people in the neighborhood, and simply since you legally possess a gun within the sanctity of your locked residence does not imply that we’re not going to stroll into that residence and test to see for those who’re being accountable and protected in the way in which you conduct your affairs,” Harris instructed a gaggle of reporters in Might 2007.
The remarks got here throughout a press convention introducing laws that Harris helped draft, which sought to impose penalties for gun house owners who fail to retailer their firearms correctly at residence.
The invoice, which on the time had simply been launched to town’s board of supervisors, was finally signed into legislation just a few months later by then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. It was bundled with different gun management provisions, together with a brand new requirement for authorized gun distributors to submit a list to the chief of police each six months, and a ban on possessing weapons – even legally – in public housing.
“San Francisco now has the strictest anti-gun legal guidelines within the county,” Newsom mentioned when he signed the brand new legal guidelines.
HARRIS SURPRISES SOCIAL MEDIA BY SAYING SHE’S A GUN OWNER
Through the Might 2007 press convention discussing the safe-storage invoice, Harris mentioned the brand new measure was about legislating “our values” in an try and “encourage sure sorts of conduct.”
“After we create legal guidelines, it is not solely about creating a possibility, if you’ll, to prosecute somebody for committing a criminal offense, however extra importantly, once we legislate our values, it is about making an attempt to encourage sure forms of conduct,” she mentioned on the time.
Harris has confronted criticism for statements she has made about her “values” heading into November. She instructed CNN final month they “haven’t modified,” whereas concurrently switching on long-held insurance policies on virtually each entrance. Since changing into the Democratic nominee for president, Harris has tried to color a extra reasonable image of herself in an try and distance herself from President Biden and attraction to a wider swath of voters.
“As she mentioned final evening in her interview, her values haven’t modified. She mentioned that again and again,” Lora Ries, a border safety knowledgeable on the Heritage Basis, instructed Fox Information Digital after the CNN interview. “She is telling her base, ‘Look, don’t fret about what the marketing campaign is saying proper now. We simply must say that to attempt to get elected. However my values haven’t modified.'”
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In the meantime, progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., mentioned Harris was dropping far-left insurance policies she beforehand held “with a view to win the election.”
“Her views should not mine, however I do think about her a progressive,” he instructed NBC’s “Meet The Press” earlier this month.
Throughout final week’s presidential debate, Harris was requested about her shifting place on obligatory gun buybacks by ABC Information moderator Linsey Davis, however she didn’t instantly reply to the query till former President Donald Trump saved probing her about having “a plan to confiscate all people’s gun.” Harris supported obligatory gun buybacks whereas working for president in 2019, saying they had been “a good suggestion.”
“This enterprise about taking everybody’s weapons away. Tim Walz and I are each gun house owners. We’re not taking anyone’s weapons away. So cease with the continual mendacity about these things,” Harris mentioned in response to Trump’s criticisms.
James Singer, a Harris marketing campaign spokesperson, instructed Fox Information Digital {that a} potential Harris administration would “uphold and defend the legislation and rights of Individuals, together with the Second Modification.”
“The legislation in query, requiring wise gun storage in properties, was upheld by Republican appointed judges within the ninth circuit and declined to be reviewed by the Supreme Courtroom,” he added. “As Vice President Harris mentioned on the controversy stage, she is a gun proprietor who helps commonsense security legal guidelines that Donald Trump opposes.”
SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF NRA IN KEY FIRST AMENDMENT CASE
Harris has an extended historical past of clashing with the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation (NRA), thought-about by many because the nation’s strongest gun rights lobbying group. In 2009, the NRA challenged the San Francisco legislation prohibiting weapons from public housing and gained. Nonetheless, the Supreme Courtroom, earlier than its latest shakeup beneath Trump, refused to listen to an attraction from the NRA and different gun rights advocates after the ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals rejected their pleas to chill out San Francisco’s protected storage legislation.
“Regulation-abiding residents should maintain their handguns inoperable or inaccessible exactly when they’re wanted most for self-defense — in the course of the evening, whereas the residents are asleep and decidedly not carrying,” attorneys for the NRA and different gun rights advocates mentioned on the time.
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In the meantime, a ruling written by one of many ninth circuit judges decided the legislation “doesn’t considerably stop law-abiding residents from utilizing firearms to defend themselves within the residence.” The choose, appointed in the course of the George W. Bush administration, added that San Francisco had demonstrated the legislation “serves a big authorities curiosity by decreasing the variety of gun-related accidents and deaths from having an unlocked handgun within the residence.”