Vice President Harris calls for assault weapons ban on heels of Uvalde elementary school massacre

As the country reels from the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Vice President Kamala Harris is calling for a renewed assault weapons ban in the United States.

Harris called for an assault weapons ban as she addressed a crowd after attending a funeral for a victim of another mass shooting that occurred a week before the Uvalde shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

“On the issue of gun violence, I will say, as I’ve said countless times, we are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine,” Harris said. “We know what works on this. It includes, let’s have an assault weapons ban.”

The Vice President continued, “You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed?” she continued. “It was designed for a specific purpose — to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society.”

The debate on gun control has reached a heightened pitch this month as the country grapples with a series of mass shootings and ongoing gun violence that has been on the uptick since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting this week, the National Rifle Association held its annual conference in Houston just hours away, drawing protesters from around the country who appeared to outnumber conference attendees.

“Everybody’s got to stand up and agree that this should not be happening in our country, and that we should have the courage to do something about it,” Harris said. The United States previously had an assault weapons ban that expired several years ago, and several studies have shown since its expiration mass shootings have increased.