Vice President Kamala Harris has made a point of describing herself as a gun owner during her past two runs for the White House.
But nearly two decades ago, the then-San Francisco district attorney backed a firearm confiscation measure that even made some prominent gun control advocates skittish.
Harris was listed as a sponsor of Proposition H, which would have barred San Francisco residents from possessing, distributing or manufacturing handguns, the San Jose Mercury News reported at the time.
“San Francisco was a leader in proposing gun restrictions at the local level, and [Harris] never met a gun control law she didn’t like,” California attorney Chuck Michel, who represented the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups in challenging the measure, told the Reload, which first reported this week on Harris’ support for Proposition H.
Harris, 59, does not appear to have spoken out extensively about the measure — which was approved by San Francisco voters on Election Day 2005, but struck down by state courts before it could take effect.
Residents would have had four months to surrender their weapons if the measure was enacted, with exemptions for certain professions like law enforcement.
Several prominent Democrats, including then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and then-US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), another former San Francisco mayor, had distanced themselves from the ballot measure.
In 2008, San Francisco was compelled to pay a $380,000 settlement to the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation, the California Rifle and Pistol Association, and other plaintiffs that had challenged Proposition H in court.
Feinstein’s apparent misgivings about Prop H are notable given her gun control advocacy. She had become mayor in 1978 after the assassination of her predecessor, George Moscone, and later authored the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons.
Harris’ position on gun control
During both her 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, Harris said she is a gun owner and keeps a firearm for personal security reasons.
“If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot, sorry,” Harris told Oprah Winfrey during a livestreamed rally last week.
“I am a gun owner. And Tim Walz is a gun owner. And we’re not trying to take anybody’s guns away from them. But we do need an assault weapons ban,” she said during an event with the National Association of Black Journalists days earlier.
However, the veep has sidestepped repeated questions about whether she would like a ban on handguns, which were involved in 59% of gun murders in the US in 2020, per data from the FBI.
“Universal background checks,” Harris replied to one of the questions about banning the weapons, noting that would apply to handguns.
Back in 2019, Harris expressed support for a mandatory buyback of so-called “assault weapons,” telling reporters at the time, “I think it’s a good idea.”
Since then, her campaign has indicated that Harris has dropped the idea, though she has not confirmed her change of view in public.
The Harris-Walz campaign did not comment on the record Wednesday.
