Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris wants to ban the importation of foreign-made AR-15 style “assault weapons” if she becomes president.
Harris announced her proposal for executive action during a speech at the Girls, Inc. of New Hampshire town hall on Wednesday morning.
“I’m announcing it for the first time today here with you, to take executive action to ban the import of assault weapons into our country,” Harris said.
I sponsored the bill to renew the assault weapons ban. We need to do it. But if Congress won’t act, I’ll take executive action as President to ban imports of AR-15-style assault weapons. We can’t afford to wait any longer as these guns flood our country. pic.twitter.com/gfUp2XSWyP
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 15, 2019
“I sponsored the bill to renew the assault weapons ban. We need to do it. But if Congress won’t act, I’ll take executive action as President to ban imports of AR-15-style assault weapons. We can’t afford to wait any longer as these guns flood our country,” Harris tweeted with the video.
“Assault weapons are designed to kill a lot of people in a very short period of time,” Harris explained during her town hall speech.
“One in four police officers who is killed in the line of duty by gunfire is killed by an assault weapon. Let’s look at the fact that there are four million assault weapons in the United States which were imported here from foreign countries.”
Harris has previously supported “assault rifle” legislation proposed by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein earlier this year that would prohibit the sale, import, export, transfer, and ownership or semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines, with only a few exceptions, CBS News reported.
Harris also supports halting all “assault weapon” imports until government agencies can determine which imports can be permanently ended under current firearm control laws, such as the Gun Control Act of 1968.
She has made gun control one of the top issues of her campaign.
Just days ago, Harris appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and vowed to use her executive power to carry out a series of harsh gun control measures if elected president, a vow she doubled down on since announcing it last month.
She promised to outlaw gun trafficking, implement a high-capacity magazine ban, prevent convicted hate crime and domestic violence perpetrators from buying a gun, implement universal background checks, and remove gunmakers and dealers’ licenses if they break the law.
We don’t need more good ideas. We need leaders with courage. pic.twitter.com/K3gK82zq7b
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 13, 2019
Harris said she would take the action on her 100th day in office.
“If by my 100th day in office when elected president of the United States, the United States Congress fails to put a bill on my desk to sign with all of the good ideas or any of the good ideas that I’m prepared to take executive action because that’s what’s needed,” Harris said.
