It’s hard to reconcile Vice President Kamala Harris’ friendly overtures to gun owners with the footage that recently emerged of a 2007 press conference in which the then-district attorney of San Francisco said cops could conduct random home inspections to enforce compliance with the city’s new “safe storage” laws.
Yes, really.
She told reporters:
We’re going to require responsible behaviors among everybody in the community, and just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affairs.
On the one hand, it’s not particularly surprising to hear Harris voice her support for a policy that, even as gun control “wish lists” go, is pretty extreme. This press conference occurred, after all, just one year before she signed onto an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller that defended Washington, D.C.‘s complete ban on handgun possession and argued against any constitutional right to own guns in the first place.
She may now begrudgingly pay lip service to the Second Amendment and tout her status as a gun owner, but it’s no secret that she remains perfectly willing to trample on Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.
It’s still nonetheless shocking that, as San Francisco’s chief prosecutor, she so brazenly and vindictively threatened to violate gun owners’ other constitutional rights, as well.
Harris isn’t some amateur on criminal law who can claim ignorance. She knows (or at least should know) that the Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. As a general rule, the government can’t search a person (or his or her property) without a warrant or absent probable cause that a crime has been committed.
Government officials certainly can’t just waltz into private homes whenever they please, going on fishing expeditions through our closets and attics, looking for evidence of wrongdoing.
She should also know that there’s no “Second Amendment loophole” to the Fourth Amendment. There’s no asterisk with fine print excluding gun owners from the rest of the Bill of Rights. The government can’t force us to pick and choose between our rights, nor can it condition the exercise of one right on the waiver of another.
Americans have the right to keep and bear arms, and we have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. We also have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures while keeping and bearing arms.
Harris’ comments should rightly terrify Americans. You don’t have to be a gun owner or even like guns to see how dangerous this theory of governance is to a free society, and how dramatically it undermines constitutional norms.
If Harris is willing to unilaterally waive gun owners’ Fourth Amendment rights, it’s not unreasonable to ask what other rights she’d be willing to unilaterally waive, and for whom.
Can the government require all who peaceably assemble to forfeit any right against excessive bail?
Can it quarter soldiers in the homes of people who petition for redress of their grievances?
May it prohibit the free exercise of religion, but just for those who insist on their right to trial by an impartial jury?
The correct answer, of course, is a resounding “no.” That’s not how our constitutional rights work—not for gun owners, and not for anyone else.
Not even if Harris threatens otherwise.
Amy Swearer is a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Amy Swearer
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Here’s the bottom line: Everything that Harris has stated since being anointed as the new presidential puppet is a lie to sell a false image of what she and Democrat Party stand for in order to get the uniformed masses to vote for her. Her actual positions on everything are well know from her last couple of decades in public office. Same goes for the Democrat Party. So, don’t get fixated on the slew of endless contradictions coming from Harris and the Party since the Party told Biden he was done and elevated her to the top of the ticket. That is just meaningless distraction tactics from the left.
In the event the American people are stupid enough to actually vote for Harris and the Democrats, then what you will get is the socialist from San Francisco who has made her views clearly known for years. You’ll also get the far-left wing of the Democrat Party, that has shown repeatedly what it stands for. All the phony talk of “moderation” will end Day One and what you will get is a continuation of the path we’ve been on from every Democrat administration for the last 60 years.
Just look at the neasures they took for COVID! Kamala owns a gun like I had an abortion. More BS to get elected by securing the FOOL VOTE! Too bad there’s so many of them…
I agree with Eric’s post. Harris is a communist. She doesn’t follow The Constitution, therefore the Fourth Amendment will mean nothing to her if she steals the election.
There exist ‘elmer fuds’ who believe in the right to keep and bear certain guns. They think the dems arent interested in their deer gun or grandpas shotgun and poo poo other gun owners worries re communist confiscation schemes. Since mass casualty events can be created with 1870s tech, theres no reason to believe the commies will ever be satisfied with taking only certain guns. Any and all gun control must be resisted.
What makes you think she won’t invade your house just to see if you have a gun?
We’re talking about a party who do not the know difference between assault weapons, and AR 15s. They’ll take all guns (including pistols) to not look as stupid as they are.
If she is supposedly dead, how is it that the Wicked Witch of the West is running for the US presidency?! As for your guns, when you see her flying monkeys coming at you, you’ll know the lid has come off.
The U.S. is getting more like Germany every day. The shootings wont stop. Theyn will get every gun from law abiding people. Then wonder bwhy criminals still have them. Harris and her ilk are stupid. Along with others that think gun confication will work.n Kyle L.
Flip flopping LIAR!
it’s unfortunate she only shot herself in the foot
yea too bad it wasn’t in the head
Just like a “Democrat”… fakery and controloholism loom large. She will try to destroy the pro-gun lobby, along with any other that can encroach on her personal, political “Authority”. In other words, Harris has no problem forcing others into harmful situations, as long as she, personally, benefits.
Ooooh, wait a minute…. that must be the credo of ALL “Democrats”, right ??!!
The 2nd amendment is almost the only way a person can defend them self, until the police can come
I do love the Gestopo. Wonderful outfit. GEE I dont kniw how this box of hand granades got here. I got some explosives if you need to blow a stump. Heil Harris. Kyle L.