Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris had gun safety on her mind as she campaigned in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
One day after formally unveiling her plan to implement stricter background checks on gun sales with or without action from Congress, the former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney highlighted her proposal at town halls in Keene and Hanover.
“One very reasonable approach is that we need to have background checks,” Harris said in an interview with the Monitor.
Harris said that if elected to the White House, she would take executive action after her first 100 days in office if Congress fails to pass a major gun safety bill that would include universal background checks on the sale of firearms and repeal current law that prevents victims from holding gunmakers and dealers liable for their losses.
Harris pointed to a lack of Congressional action after mass shootings across the country in the past decade.
“There’s so many examples of absolute tragedies and yet Congress has not acted,” the senator from California said. “So my point is this – when elected, I’ll give Congress the opportunity. But if they don’t act, I’ll act. And I believe that is reflective of where the American public is. They want reasonable gun safety laws.”
When asked how such a move would be received in a state such as New Hampshire, where the rights of gun owners are well guarded, Harris told the Monitor “I think most people understand – gun owners or not gun owners – that we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country,” she said. “That’s what this is targeted at.”
“I’m very clear in my mind – I think most people are – that it’s a false choice to suggest that you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” she added.
Harris was interviewed before a town hall at Dartmouth College in Hanover where she spoke and took questions from a capacity crowd of more than 400. Minutes earlier, the senator went outside to a speak with an overflow crowd of a couple hundred.
Earlier, at a town hall at Keene State College, Harris was asked about adding a third gender option on federal identifications. The senator said she supports the idea, bolstering her record on LGBTQ issues.
“It’s a simple point,” Harris said. “There needs to be another category. And I’m open to the idea of doing that. And I think that it’s a good idea.”
The trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state was Harris’s second since launching her White House bid in January.
While her visits lag in frequency compared to most of her rivals for the Democratic nomination, Harris vowed that the Granite State is a priority.
“I am building up an operation in New Hampshire and staffing up in New Hampshire and putting resources in New Hampshire because I care deeply about this state,” she said. “I plan on making it a priority for me and I’ve not wavered in that … that’s why I’m here right now and that’s why I’ll keep coming back.”
Harris added that it’s not the number of trips that’s important.
“I think what the state cares most about and what the people in this state care most about is that whoever wants to be president of the United States is paying attention to their issues, spending enough time listening, and frankly listening more than talking,” she said.
Harris stopped in Claremont on her way from Keene to Hanover. The brief visit included a stop at the Uptown Bakery, where the candidate spoke with patrons and purchased donuts and pastries for her staff.