Kamala Harris rolls out state-based gun violence initiatives

Vice President Kamala Harris led a White House convention of state legislators Wednesday to detail a new group of gun violence prevention actions from the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden launched the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention earlier this year, and Wednesday’s announcement specifically rolled out the “Safer States Initiative” and two new executive actions.

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Harris opened her remarks by paying tribute to Josh Seal, one of the people killed in the Lewiston, Maine, mass shootings. The vice president noted that Seal, an American Sign Language interpreter, “signed for me all over the world” and lauded his family for being “very committed to public service.”

“I know that many of you have held the hands and have hugged and tried to comfort community members and your constituents and people you know who have suffered because of gun violence,” she continued. “And I therefore know that when we have this conversation and address this crisis that, for everyone here, it is personal. You are individuals who have answered a call to serve. And that requires a lot of personal sacrifice — because you care.”

Biden and Harris have continued to call on Congress to pass stricter gun regulations following 2022’s bipartisan Safer Communities Act, but the administration on Wednesday turned to state governments to act where Congress has not.

Acknowledging “real challenges” ahead for enacting gun reforms, Harris urged attendees to not accept the “false choice” of backing the Second Amendment or taking away guns.

“I’ll speak for myself,” Harris said. “I am absolutely in favor of the Second Amendment. And I am also in favor of an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, red flag laws.”

Despite coming under heavy scrutiny during the first three years of the Biden administration, Harris has been deployed aggressively in recent months to serve as a top administration voice on both gun violence prevention and abortion rights.

Democratic campaign operatives have previously told the Washington Examiner that tying Harris to those two topics could help rehash her image with voters both heading into the 2024 cycle and ahead of a second White House bid of her own in the future.

The first executive action announced Wednesday provides states with model “safe storage” legislation, which would attempt to regulate how gun owners properly store their firearms, while the second provides states with a model for reporting lost or stolen firearms.

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The Safer States Initiative itself will encourage states to stand up their own gun violence prevention offices and additionally invest in programs modeled off Biden’s own federal plan to curb gun violence.

“These are all policies where the White House in this administration have made progress at the federal level,” Stefanie Feldman, the director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, told reporters Tuesday ahead of Harris’ announcement. “And we are going to continue to call on Congress to act but in the meantime, we are going to be working hand in hand with states to advance all these agenda items.”