Photo credit: Gage Skidmore
Vice President Mike Pence (R) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will take the stage on Wednesday night for the lone vice presidential debate. This comes just over a week after the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D) failed to mention a word about Biden’s outlandish proposals to infringe upon our Second Amendment rights.
The thing is, as radical as Biden’s views have been on your constitutional rights, Harris goes even further. Those who cherish and seek to protect the right to keep and bear arms should hope that this debate shines a spotlight on what a Biden-Harris ticket really means for our freedom.
Like Biden, she has repeatedly called for the repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), and she joined an amicus brief filed in the landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), during her tenure as San Francisco district attorney, in which she argued the Second Amendment does not protect our individual right to keep and bear arms.
During the third Democratic Party presidential debate, held in September 2019, Harris confirmed that she would take executive action if Congress did not enact her sweeping gun-control agenda within her first 100 days in office. Her campaign website reiterated this before she joined Biden’s ticket.
In sharp contrast, Pence has a history of defending the Second Amendment throughout his political career. Whereas Harris seeks to hold gun manufacturers civilly liable for the criminal misuse of their products, Pence voted in favor of the PLCAA during his time as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pence has also co-sponsored and voted for various pieces of legislation affirming our rights and promoting the safe, responsible ownership of firearms, including a resolution that encourages schools to teach the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.
Speaking at the 2019 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum, Pence said, “You know, the President and I stand with the NRA because, like all of you, we stand for freedom. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a freedom that is at the heart of the American story.”
“Under this President and this administration, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” said Pence later on at the same event.
Mike Pence and Kamala Harris are worlds apart on the Second Amendment, as are Trump and Biden. Though the first presidential debate failed to mention just how radical a Biden-Harris administration would be, proponents of freedom should hope that Wednesday’s vice presidential debate clearly shines a light on this.
The final two presidential debates are currently scheduled for Oct. 15 and 22.
