Kamala Harris has a gun at home, and she plans to use it as a political argument

For years, Kamala Harris He barely mentioned the gun he keeps at home, but since he started campaigning for the US presidential elections in November, he never misses an opportunity to talk about it.

“I have a gun,” The vice president repeated last week on the set of the American television star Oprah Winfrey.

Is it a pistol or a revolver? It is unknown. The Democratic candidate for the White House has not specified or revealed the manufacturer. All that is known is that she keeps it in a safe place, in her California home.

“If anyone breaks into my house, they will be shot,” he said with laughter to a stunned Oprah.

In a country traumatized by gun massacres, many Americans were left stunned.

Isn’t it supposed to be Democratic Party andin the fight against violence with personal firearms?

Three experts told AFP that the vice president is weighing her words as part of an electoral strategy.

“Kamala Harris “She wants to avoid being portrayed by her opponents as anti-gun. The easiest way to do that is to announce that she owns a gun,” says Joan Burbick.

“It’s very interesting that he joked to Oprah that he would shoot an intruder. Democrats are seen as not being tough enough on crime,” says Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.

In 2019, Kamala Harris told reporters: “I own a gun probably for the same reasons most people do: for my personal safety. “I was a prosecutor.”

Four years earlier, in an interview with Politico, she had confessed to being “a good shooter.”

In a country where criticizing the huge number of firearms in the hands of the population can lead to losing an election, the candidate has chosen a running mate with a reassuring profile: Tim Walz, from Nebraska, who is a hunter and ex-soldier.

About one third of adults and 40% of American households own at least one firearm.

Donald Trump is believed to own three guns. He had a New York gun permit that was reportedly revoked following his indictment and conviction for falsifying accounting records.

The billionaire, who has been the victim of two assassination attempts, said on Wednesday that his life was under direct threat from Iran.

“I am surrounded by more men, rifles and weapons than ever before,” he said.

The Republican, officially backed by the main gun lobby in USA, The National Rifle Association accused its rival of wanting to “confiscate” Americans’ weapons in violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

But the candidate categorically denies this and merely defends the need to strengthen legislation to check the criminal and psychiatric records of gun buyers.

Kamala Harris He also supports banning semi-automatic assault rifles, but has stopped advocating a mandatory buyback program for these weapons, which are among the most lethal.

The former prosecutor is balancing the issue of gun regulation, which ranks seventh among voters’ concerns for the November presidential election, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Gun owners are more than twice as likely to be Republicans than Democrats.

The defenders of weapons are more likely to vote conservative, while those in favor of stricter legislation lean Democratic.

“But these are trends, not absolutes,” says Gregg Carter, professor emeritus at Bryant University in Rhode Island.

“This year’s elections are so close that every candidate is trying to pick up a few extra votes whenever they can,” he said.

In reality, according to this expert, Kamala Harris is “risking little” with her electorate by saying that she keeps a gun at home to defend herself.