New York Times Columnist David French on Gun Politics in the 2024 Election

The Weekly Reload Podcast

This week saw a lot of developments surrounding guns in the 2024 presidential election.

After walking back her support for a mandatory buyback of AR-15s and the like, Kamala Harris doubled down on her support for a slew of other gun restrictions by selecting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her VP. Then Donald Trump broke his recent silence on guns by attacking Harris and doubling down on support for gun ownership.

So, we've got New York Times columnist David French back on the show to go over all of the developments. He said Harris is attempting to run away from what he called the "great awokening" of the 2020 Democratic primary, and he said Walz misled the public about having carried the guns he now wants to ban "in war." But he also noted the gun policies she and Walz have now centered their campaign on are fairly mainstream for the most part, both within the Democratic party and even among general election voters.

He admitted that Donald Trump and Republicans are better on gun rights. However, he argued that didn't justify voting for Trump over Harris because the latter is unlikely to be able to institute her gun policies given the most likely outcomes of the 2024 election. Similarly, he argued Harris was unlikely to be able to change the makeup of the Supreme Court during her first term since conservative justices probably won't retire. He said he was more concerned about what Trump could do with the presidency's power over national security than what Harris might be able to accomplish through legislative efforts.

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Special Guest: David French.