Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) said on Monday night that as president she would give Congress 100 days to take action on gun control before she would take executive action.
"Upon being elected I will give the United States Congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. And if they fail to do it, then I will take executive action," Harris told a CNN town hall in New Hampshire. "And specifically what I will do is put in place a requirement that for anyone who sells more than five guns a year, they are required to do background checks when they sell those guns. I will require that for any gun dealer that breaks the law the ATF take their license."
Ben Bernier, a University of New Hampshire student, told Harris that he was nervous about becoming a target of a mass shooting as he studies to become an educator.
"I am really bothered that public schools are being targets for mass shootings. Two days ago was the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, but two decades later no major gun control legislation has been passed," Bernier said. "As president how will you go about keeping our schools safe and keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them?"
"I'm sure there are plenty of students here, while you were in high school, even middle school, that you had to participate in a drill, right, where you were convened and your teachers taught you about how you need to go and run in a closet because there may be a mass shooter roaming the hallways of your school. And in our America that should never have to happen," Harris said.
"There are people in Washington, D.C., supposed leaders who have failed to have the courage to reject a false choice, which you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take people's guns away. Supposed leaders in Washington, D.C. who have failed to have the courage to recognize, you want to go hunting, that's fine, but we need reasonable gun safety laws in this country, starting with universal background checks and the renewal of the assault weapon ban but they have failed to have the courage to act."
Harris is considered one of the top candidates in the crowded 2020 Democratic field, but she is far behind front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in New Hampshire polling.