Those types of guns “are literally designed as instruments of war,” she told Winfrey. “They have no place on the streets of civil society.”
Harris’s opponents have increasingly pointed to her stance on gun issues as a sign of a shift in her policy stance ahead of the November election.
She emphasized her support for an assault weapons ban on Thursday, but an ABC News debate moderator noted last week that Democrats no longer support a “buyback” program that would force gun owners to turn over AR-15s and other assault weapons to the government.
The buyback proposal gained traction in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, and Harris supported it at the time. “There has to be a buyback program, and I support a mandatory gun buyback program,” she said in October 2019.
In the presidential debates, Harris did not directly explain why she no longer supports the idea of buying stocks.
When Winfrey asked Harris if she had been a gun owner “for a while,” Harris said she had. She said she supports the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
But Harris stressed that she wants stricter gun laws.
She made her case for a ban on assault weapons in the wake of school shootings in the United States.
Harris said it was “bone-chilling” that a child would have to go through such a drill because of an incident like that. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” she added.
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with killing four people at a Georgia high school in one of the most recent mass shootings in the United States.
At Thursday’s event with Winfrey, who also spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month, Harris was also questioned on topics including immigration and the economy.
Celebrities including Jennifer Lopez took part in the session, which was watched by an estimated 300,000 people.
