Vice President Kamala Harris embraced one of the most brazen gun control policies enacted in the Western world on Thursday.
The veep defended the national gun confiscation conducted by the Australian government in 1996 — in which civilian firearms were seized en masse.
Harris spoke at a State Department event in which Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was present.
Before addressing relations between the United States and Australia, Harris mentioned the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, in which 18 Americans were killed.
“In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence.”
“Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country.”
“And let us be clear: it does not have to be this way,” Harris said of gun violence in the United States, before pointing to Albanese.
Kamala Harris praises Australia’s massive gun confiscation:
“Let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.” pic.twitter.com/13Q95wkFVp
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 26, 2023
“As our friends in Australia have demonstrated.”
Harris continued to pivot away from domestic gun policy.
Some extremist elements within the Democratic Party, including failed presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, have proposed similar policies in the United States.
O’Rourke staked his furtive 2020 presidential campaign on the idea of forcibly confiscating semi-automatic rifles from their owners.
WATCH as Beto O’Rourke says,
If law-abiding gun owners do not turn in guns there will be “consequences from law enforcement.”
Don’t buy the “gun buy-back” lie, this is confiscation by force.#DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/Eol7lEm5RS
— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) October 16, 2019
There’s scant hard evidence on the number of firearms such as the AR-15 in circulation, but it’s likely that law enforcement would have to seize millions of firearms from previously law-abiding gun owners if Australia-style policy were enacted in the United States.
A 2008 Department of Justice study concluded that there was little evidence that Australia’s gun confiscation program significantly changed the levels of gun homicides and suicides in the country.
Even after the 1996 seizure, Australians still own 3.5 million legal and registered firearms, according to the University of Sydney.
The number of lawful gun owners in the country has significantly declined, however.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.