Harris Told Oprah Winfrey She’s a Gun Owner?

Claim:

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is a gun owner.

Rating:

On Sept. 19, 2024, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke with Oprah Winfrey during an event where – among other topics – she discussed school shootings and gun rights.

“I’m a gun owner, Tim Walz is a gun owner,” she said. “If somebody breaks in my house they’re getting shot.”

As the 2024 presidential election neared, Harris faced the challenging task of appealing to a wide spectrum of voters who share widely different views on gun rights.

As of this writing, Harris was advocating for stricter gun laws — such as state-enacted red-flag laws, required background checks, and an assault weapons ban — but countered Republican former President Donald Trump when he accused her of having “a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun” during the presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024.

“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away,” she said. “So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”

Later that evening, Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, posted the following on X (archived):

Kamala Harris and I are both gun owners. 

We’re not going to take away your Second Amendment rights — we’re going to prevent your kids from getting shot at school.

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) September 11, 2024

Multiple outlets — including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, BBC, Vox and NPR — published articles in the wake of this announcement with headlines such as “Wait, Kamala Harris owns a gun?” And “Kamala Harris is a gun owner — but she’s still a proponent of stricter gun laws.“

It wasn’t the first time Harris publicly mentioned that she owns a gun; while on the presidential campaign trail during the Democratic primaries in 2019, she said: “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason that a lot of people do, for personal safety. I was a career prosecutor. And in terms of gun policy though I think that for too long and still today we are being offered a false choice which suggests you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”

At the time, CNN reported that an aide said Harris kept the handgun safely locked up in her California home.

In sum, because Harris herself publicly confirmed she’s a gun owner, we’ve rate this claim as true.

Sources