Yes, Harris once said that authorities can enter homes to make sure guns are safely stored

Claim:

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris once said that authorities can enter the homes of gun owners to see if guns are stored safely.

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context:

Harris made the remarks in 2007, when she was San Francisco’s district attorney and the city was trying to curb gun deaths. Legislation requiring gun safes and deadbolt locks passed months later and was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2015.

In the weeks leading up to the 2024 US presidential election, a video has gone viral in which Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris says gun owners should expect visits from authorities to make sure they are following safety rules. For example, September 20, 2024. Instagram post Conservative pundits Tucker Carlson and Jesse Kelly shared the footage:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAJT1HUtzgB/

In the blurry video, Harris said, “Just because you legally own a gun in your locked home doesn’t mean we’re not going to go into that home and make sure you’re responsible and safe. the way you go about your business.”

At the time of writing, the post has 443,000 views and 50,000 likes. “I make them come into my house!!” said the commentator.

An extended version of the video also appeared on a pro-gun-rights YouTube channel:

The video and quote comes from a A 2007 press conference by then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Harris, then the city’s district attorney, about new legislation aimed at ensuring safe gun storage. Harris’s full quote (starting at 32:40) was as follows:

For the most part, we don’t create anything new. It’s just time. And I think with the level of homicide that we’re seeing, and certainly our focus on it and our concern about it, it’s just time, and rightly so. And going back to that earlier question, I mean, the people who are going to oppose what we’re doing is the NRA, and they’re not African-Americans, they’re people who live in this community and are traumatized by violence every day. It’s the people who own the guns, sit quietly on those guns, and those guns can end up being the weapons of community destruction because they end up in the hands of some kid who decides they like what they see on TV and they want to act this way. So it’s just that we’re going to demand responsible behavior from everyone in the community, and just because you legally own a gun in your locked home doesn’t mean we’re not going to go into your home and see if you’re responsible and safe , how you conduct your affairs.

In other words, Harris said the quote. At the start of the press conference, Lenore Anderson, then the director of the mayor’s office, made it clear that Harris had played an important role in writing the law. With them was San Francisco Police Commissioner Joe Marshall, who expressed support for the law.

A few months later, legislation became law in San Francisco. The law was intended to make it more difficult to own and sell firearms, better track dealers’ stockpiles of firearms, and force gun owners to store their guns either in locked boxes or with trigger locks.

In 2015 The US Supreme Court allowed this law to remain in effect after the NRA sued the city to stop its enforcement.

Harris, who owns the gunsaid during her 2024 presidential campaign that while she would support stricter gun laws, she would not seek confiscate weapons from peopleas her opponent — former President Donald Trump — stated.

Sources:

Egelko, Bob. “U.S. Supreme Court Upholds San Francisco’s Gun and Bullet Law.” SF Gate, 8 June 2015, https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/High-court-lets-stand-SFs-gun-control-law-6313731.php.

Newsom signs gun ban laws. http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/bcn_newsom_gun_control_leg_070801.shtml. Accessed on October 28. 2024

PerryCook, Taya. “Is Kamala Harris, who advocates for stricter gun laws, a gun owner?” Snopes, September 13, 2024 https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kamala-harris-who-advocates-stricter-gun-laws-is-a-gun-owner/.

Press conference in San Francisco on new gun safety legislation. 2007, https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/clip/3577.