Seducing the centrist electorate, breaking the image of the far-left candidate, countering criticism from Donald Trump… As the presidential election approaches, Kamala Harris’ recent speeches on her possession of a firearms are far from trivial.
A Glock semi-automatic pistol from Kamala Harris. For several weeks and a month before the November election, the Democratic presidential candidate facing Donald Trump has ostentatiously displayed her possession of a firearm. While being in favor of stricter control of these weapons, a sensitive subject in the United States where mass killings are frequent and a symbol of the opposition between the Democratic and Republican camps.
During an interview on the CBS show 60 Minutes this Monday, October 7, the vice-president clarified that she had owned a Glock “for quite a long time.”
Has she ever shot it? “Of course I did. On a shooting range,” she said with a laugh, while recalling her past in the justice system, as a prosecutor.
This theme, a reserved area for the Republican camp, had already been discussed in mid-September, on the set of the famous host Oprah Winfrey. “If someone forces entry into my home, they will be shot,” Kamala Harris said. Already in 2019, the former prosecutor explained that she owned a firearm for her “personal security”.
Capturing the centrist electorate and breaking the image of the far left
His goal? “Try to win votes in the center”, where the election will be played out, explains Olivier Richomme, professor of American civilization at Lumière Lyon-2 University, interviewed by BFMTV.com.
“She wants to appear as a centrist, which in my opinion she is, this speech corresponds to her,” he adds. According to the latter, appealing to the side of the conservative electorate largely won over by Donald Trump, himself supported by the NRA – the main firearms lobby in the country with great political and economic influence – seems, on the other hand, little feasible.
“She rather wants to avoid caricature, to break the image of the far-left candidate,” judges the United States specialist.
An image that Donald Trump and the Republican camp have stuck to him since the start of the campaign.
By thus displaying her relationship to firearms, the candidate nominated by the Democratic Party aims to counter the criticism of her opponent. During the presidential debate in September, Donald Trump accused his rival – leading by almost three points in the polls according to the FiveThirtyEight polling institute of the American channel ABC – of wanting if she is elected to “confiscate the weapons of all world”. A right protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
“We don’t confiscate anyone’s guns, so stop continually lying about this,” she retorted.
For Jonathan Aronson, professor of communications and international relations at the University of South Carolina in the United States, interviewed by Business Insider, Kamala Harris wants to “mitigate a possible attack from Trump that she is anti-police and lax on crime”.
“It can also be strategic to remind voters that she is the law and order candidate, as a former attorney general,” said Georgia Kernell, associate professor of communications and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Showing herself as the owner of a firearm is also a way for her to “break stereotypes”, both towards Democrats and women. “She appears as a strong woman who knows what she is talking about, she breaks the stereotypes of the cowboy, the macho,” notes Olivier Richomme who emphasizes that in American society, women are also important holders of firearms.
“Then, by doing this, she gets people talking about her, she creates a surprise,” he adds.
“Democrats have a very ambivalent relationship with guns”
If, like a majority of Americans, Democratic politicians own a firearm, few of them display it publicly.
“It is indeed difficult for them to carry out projects to regulate the carrying of weapons while admitting to owning one. The Democrats have a very ambivalent relationship with firearms,” explains Olivier Richomme, who points to a “cultural war” between the two camps.
Before adding: “Until then, the Democrats avoided mixing the two registers. But now, Kamala Harris is trying.”
She also brandishes the card of her running mate Tim Walz, also a gun owner and a notable exception in the Democratic camp. An avid hunter, the governor of Minnesota was an active member of the NRA. But since the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012 where 20 children were killed, he has questioned access to assault rifles and has passed texts in his state that further regulate the carrying of weapons.
Now free from Joe Biden, who is Kamala Harris really?
Kamala Harris, however, does not budge from her positions and continues to defend the Democrats’ own regulatory program.
“Every person in our nation should have the freedom to live free from gun violence,” she declared at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 23.
In line with Joe Biden, the vice-president would like to ban the purchase of assault rifles, and better regulate the carrying of weapons by promoting “Red flags laws”. This would make it possible, in particular, to check a person’s background before purchasing a weapon or to withdraw it from people deemed dangerous to society.
To regulate weapons, “we would need a very profound cultural and legislative revolution. It is anchored in American culture”, explains Olivier Richomme who specifies that because of “federalism”, it is “difficult to move the lines” .
“To me, gun control advocates have lost most of the battles,” he concludes.
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