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AR-15-style rifles are on display at Burbank Ammo & Guns in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP) AR-15-style rifles are on display at Burbank Ammo & Guns in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)

AR-15-style rifles are on display at Burbank Ammo & Guns in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)

Amy Sherman
By Amy Sherman August 7, 2024

Kamala Harris once backed mandatory assault weapons buybacks. Not anymore.

If Your Time is short

  • Kamala Harris, as a 2019 presidential primary candidate, said, "I support a mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons. We found no examples that she supports mandatory gun confiscation now and the majority of guns sold in the U.S. are handguns.

  • Former President Trump used the present tense when he said that Harris "supports mandatory gun confiscation." The Harris campaign told The New York Times that she supports banning assault weapons but not requiring their sale to the federal government. 

  • As vice president, Harris has urged states to pass red flag laws and supported federal gun safety legislation that included funding for mental health and school security resources.

Former President Donald Trump told supporters in Georgia that Vice President Kamala Harris will take away their guns and leave them "totally defenseless in your house."

"She supports mandatory gun confiscation," Trump said Aug. 3 at a campaign rally in Atlanta. He added sarcastically, "Would anybody mind if they came into your house and took away your gun? …  She's for taking away all of your guns."

In July, we saw similar statements about Harris’ gun record from the NRA, Gun Owners of America and Dave McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican running for U.S. Senate.

The phrase "gun confiscation" is broad and could lead voters to think that Harris wants to confiscate all guns from law-abiding owners. That’s not what she has said.

Further, those rights are constitutionally protected by the Second Amendment. In the U.S. gun buybacks are programs organized by local police departments that voluntarily allow people to turn over their guns in exchange for something, such as a gift card.

While running in the presidential primary in 2019, the then-California senator said she supported a "mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons. It did not apply to all guns, and she no longer holds that position.

The Trump campaign did not respond to our request for comment.

Harris has supported gun buybacks and other measures

Harris addressed gun buybacks several times during the 2019 campaign.

During an October 2019 gun control forum in Las Vegas, Harris joined two primary rivals in supporting the mandatory buyback of assault weapons. 

"We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory gun buyback program," Harris said. "It’s got to be smart, we got to do it the right way. But there are 5 million (assault weapons) at least, some estimate as many as 10 million, and we’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it the right way."

Assault weapons are not the majority of guns sold in the U.S. Handguns are the most popular. A 1994 federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, barred the "manufacture, transfer, and possession" of about 118 firearm models and all magazines holding over 10 rounds. Harris has supported renewing the ban throughout her career.

In November 2019, NBC News also reported that Harris then supported a "mandatory gun buyback." Harris told the interviewer that "there is no place" for assault weapons on the streets.

NBC News’ Harry Smith asked Harris, "So, say you’ve got a couple hundred thousand off the streets, I mean, isn’t that just a drop in the bucket?

Harris said: "Well, what we’ll do is have an incentive for people to turn them in and buy them back. But when we`re talking about weapons of war, I mean, it literally is this simple. Five million assault weapons on the streets of America, period."

The Trump campaign in an X post highlighted Harris’ response to a college student’s question in a September 2019 episode of "The Tonight Show" starring Jimmy Fallon.

One student asked Harris, "Do you believe in mandatory buy back of quote unquote ‘assault weapons’ and whether or not you do, how does that idea not go against fundamentally the Second Amendment?"

In its video clip of Harris, the Trump campaign included a couple of sentences of Harris’ remarks. We put the parts that the Trump campaign included in the video in bold:

Harris said: "I do believe that we need to do buybacks." Then she described assault weapons as "weapons of war." She vowed if elected to "ban on the importation of assault weapons" and said that the U.S. will have to deal with the assault weapons that are already in the country. 

"And, so, a buyback program is a good idea, now we need to do it the right way and part of that has to be buy back and give people their value the financial value of what they have and not just take things from people that have value without compensating them. We need to do it the right way," she said.

During an April 2019 CNN town hall, Harris referred to her time as state attorney general and said law enforcement was permitted to confiscate guns from people who were found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others. 

"I have to stress, lawful gun ownership, that is one thing," Harris said. "We’re talking about something else and we have to stop conflating and blending all these issues."

In April 2019, Harris told reporters in Iowa, "We are being offered a false choice. You’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away. It’s a false choice that is born out of a lack of courage from leaders who must recognize and agree that there are some practical solutions to what is a clear problem in our country."

We asked the Harris campaign whether she still supports mandatory assault weapons buybacks. She does not. A campaign spokesperson pointed to a comment the campaign gave to The New York Times that, like President Joe Biden, Harris wants to ban assault weapons but not require people to sell them to the federal government.

We found no statements by Harris during calling for mass gun confiscation during her vice presidency.

As vice president, Harris has urged states to pass red flag laws and supported federal gun safety legislation that included funding for mental health and school security resources. None of that is akin to gun confiscation. 

Our ruling

Trump said Harris "supports mandatory gun confiscation." 

While running in the 2019 presidential primary, Harris said, "I support a mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons. This would not cover all guns; handguns, for example, are the most popular.

Trump used the present tense when he said that Harris "supports mandatory gun confiscation." The Harris campaign told The New York Times that she supports banning assault weapons but not a requirement to sell them to the federal government. We could find no examples that she currently supports mandatory gun confiscation.

The claim contains an element of truth about her past position on assault weapons, but it leaves a misleading impression about her platform in 2024. We rate this statement Mostly False.

RELATED: Poll data backs Kamala Harris’ claim that 1 in 5 Americans have lost a family member to gun violence

RELATED: Are 75% of guns used in school shootings found unsecured in homes? Experts say more data is needed

Our Sources

C-SPAN, Trump rally in Atlanta, Aug. 3, 2024

C-SPAN, Trump rally in Harrisburg, July 31, 2024

GoErie, Live updates: Trump visits Harrisburg for first Pennsylvania post-shooting rally, July 31, 2024

The Trace, Kamala Harris’s Record on Guns, July 24, 2024

The Trace, How Many Guns Are Circulating in the U.S.? March 6, 2023

Trump War Room, X post, July 30,2024

RNC, X post, July 30, 2024

Gun Owners of America, X post, July 21, 2024

Dave McCormick, X post, July 23, 2024

National Rifle Association, Kamala Harris is an existential threat to the Second Amendment and supports gun vonfiscation, July 29, 2024

Bloomberg News, Kamala Harris supports mandatory buyback of assault weapons, Sept. 6, 2019

NBC News, Gun Safety Forum: Live updates from Las Vegas, Oct. 2, 2019

NBC, Sen. Kamala Harris interview, Nov. 15, 2019

Everytown, What Does Freedom from Gun Violence Mean for Kamala Harris? July 29, 2024

Rand Corp., Gun Buyback Programs in the United States, Jan. 10, 2023

Factcheck.org, Social posts spin Harris’ gun control proposal, May 2, 2019

Snopes.com, Did U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris say she’d sign an executive order as president to forcibly confiscate guns? April 30, 2019

The Associated Press, Post misrepresents Kamala Harris quote on gun safety laws, Aug. 14, 2020

USA Today, Fact check: Kamala Harris didn't say she'd send police to take firearms via executive order, Aug. 15, 2020

CBS News, Kamala Harris vows to take executive action on guns if elected president, April 23, 2019

CNN Politics, Harris: I'll give Congress 100 days to pass gun laws, April 23, 2019

The Washington Post, Harris promises to impose new gun rules if Congress won’t, April 22, 2019

USA Today, Kamala Harris: 'I will take executive action' on gun control if I am elected president, April 23, 2019

The New York Times, Kamala Harris proposes executive orders on gun control, April 22, 2019

YouTube, Kamala Harris willing to send cops to people's homes to confiscate banned firearms, Aug. 3, 2019

CNN Politics, Biden says you can't ban weapons with an executive order. Harris responds: "Let's say, 'Yes we can,'" Sept. 12, 2019

YouTube, ABC News Democratic Debate - Watch the full debate (2019), Sept. 12, 2019

CNN, Kamala Harris says she'll ban imports of all AR-15 style assault weapons if Congress doesn't act, May 15, 2019

CNN, Kamala Harris talks about owning a gun: ‘I was a career prosecutor’ April 11, 2019

Law Enforcement Today, Biden running mate Kamala Harris at one time said she would confiscate guns through executive order, Aug. 13, 2020

The New York Times, Why the Kamala Harris of four years ago could haunt her in 2024, July 29, 2024

PolitiFact, No, Kamala Harris didn’t say this about guns, Aug. 17, 2020

PolitiFact, Congress passes historic bipartisan gun legislation: Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, June 24, 2022

PolitiFact, Ask PolitiFact: What are red flag gun laws and do they keep people safe?, June 10, 2022

Email interview, Ammar Moussa, Vice President Kamala Harris campaign spokesperson, Aug. 1, 2024

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Kamala Harris once backed mandatory assault weapons buybacks. Not anymore.

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