During the September 12, 2019, Democrat debate, then-presidential hopeful Kamala Harris pledged to ban AR-15s via executive action.
She did this after then-presidential hopeful Joe Biden rejected the idea, claiming the constitution does not give authority for such action.
Harris countered Biden, saying, “Joe, instead of saying ‘no we can’t,’ let’s say ‘yes we can.'”
She then went on to say, “Yes we can” and then described seeing autopsy photos, attending police officer funerals, and hugging mothers of homicide victims, citing those experiences as the motivation she planned to use to go around Congress.
Harris said, “The idea that we would wait for this Congress, which has just done nothing, to act, is just, it is, it is, overlooking the fact that everyday in America, our babies are going to school to have drills…to learn [how to hide from mass shooters].”
Ten days after the failed Trump assassination, Harris pushed an “assault weapons” ban, a red flag law, and universal background checks.
On July 30. 2024, during Senate hearings on the attempted Trump assassination, Democrat Sens. Mazie Hirono and Dick Durbin targeted AR-15 rifles. Breitbart News reported that Hirono criticized the “easy accessibility” of AR-15s and Durbin similarly used the hearing to lambast “easy access to AR-15 rifles.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
