Sen. Kamala Harris has put stronger gun policies at the center of her 2020 presidential campaign, but when she pledged that, if elected, she would take executive action to require universal background checks, allow accountability for firearms manufacturers and dealers, and more, she wasn’t done. Now Harris is promising that she would ban the import of AR-15-style assault weapons.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits the import of weapons that are not “suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes,” something Harris—reasonably—argues is true of AR-15-style weapons. Her proposal would also ban the sale of other assault weapons while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assessed whether they, too, were not suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes and should be banned as imports.
Harris’ campaign told HuffPost that four million out of 15 million to 20 million assault weapons in the U.S. were imported.
This expansion of Harris’ gun reform agenda follows Sen. Cory Booker’s announcement of a plan to require licensing for gun ownership. Harris is centering her proposals on executive action, while Booker’s plan relies on Congress.