Harris vs. Trump on crime: Where they stand on the issue

A: Harris voted for the First Step Act, which reduced some prison sentences and allowed some prisoners early release, as a senator in 2018, along with most Democrats. At the time, she said far more reforms were needed but said the bill was “a first step to right the wrongs” that exist in the criminal justice system.

A: The Trump administration approved the First Step Act in 2018, which reduced some prison sentences and allowed some prisoners early release, after it passed Congress, and the former president has repeatedly played up his role in the legislation.

A: Harris supports decriminalizing marijuana use and introduced a Senate bill to federally decriminalize the drug in 2019. She believes nobody should go to jail for smoking marijuana, she said at a White House roundtable on marijuana reform in March, and she urged federal agencies to act quickly on the Biden-Harris administration’s directive to reassess marijuana’s classification on the federal drug schedule. She cited the disproportionate marijuana arrest numbers for Black and Latino Americans, saying “far too many people have been sent to jail for simple marijuana possession.” She touted the administration’s pardoning of people with federal marijuana convictions and its call for states to pardon such convictions. Harris’s stance represents a shift in her views: When she was a district attorney, her office convicted nearly 2,000 people for marijuana-related crimes. When she ran for California attorney general in 2010, she opposed legalizing recreational marijuana. By 2019, she supported legalization and – as a presidential candidate – said she had smoked marijuana and defended its recreational use.

A: In September, Trump posted on social media that he would support a Florida ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana use. He added he would “end needless arrests and incarcerations” for people who use “small amounts of marijuana for personal use.” He also stated his support for federal research to “unlock the medical uses of marijuana” and the right of states to hold ballot referendums on its use. The September social media posting puts Trump in rare alignment with Harris on the issue.

A: In March, Harris called on every state to enact a red-flag law and announced the Biden-Harris administration’s creation of a national resource center to help states implement them. Harris called red-flag laws one tool in addressing gun violence and said they can help get people help “before tragedy occurs.” Harris has long supported such laws and as attorney general backed California lawmakers’ efforts to pass one in 2014, which made the state one of the earliest to enact such a policy.

A: In 2019, Trump said he supported red-flag laws after the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso. His administration abandoned the effort later that year under pressure from the National Rifle Association.

A: Harris announced new federal rules in April that require background checks to be done by sellers at gun shows and online, aiming to tighten a loophole through which buyers and sellers in certain venues have escaped background checks. Harris has long supported universal background checks and called on Congress to pass broader gun-control legislation.

A: After the Parkland, Fla., mass killing in 2018, Trump held a meeting with members of Congress at the White House and said “[W]e have to keep the guns out of the hands of those that pose the threat. And this really includes background checks.” Later that year, the White House distanced itself from many of the background check proposals amid backlash from the National Rifle Association. In February, Trump told NRA members that he would undo Biden’s actions on guns and told them “no one will lay a finger on your firearms.”

A: Harris has criticized efforts to arm teachers in response to school shootings. As California attorney general, Harris supported a state law that required people to show “good cause” in order to carry a concealed weapon. She supports other policies backed by gun-control groups that oppose allowing guns on college campuses.

A: At an NRA event in April 2023, Trump proposed a tax credit for teachers who want a concealed carry weapon on school grounds and who want training. During a 2018 discussion about school shootings Trump also dismissed gun-free zones and touted concealed carry of guns for teachers and “people of talent” on school grounds. He later tweeted that he only meant a small percentage of teachers should be armed.

A: In 2019, her presidential platform included repealing the federal law that shields gun manufacturers from liability. She signaled support for a lawsuit against gun manufacturers by families whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, saying they “deserve their day in court.” The Biden-Harris administration has also called on Congress to repeal the law and urged states to hold gun makers “accountable for unlawful conduct.”

A: Trump has shown support for gunmakers on social media and his administration also changed rules in 2020 to allow gun manufacturers to sell arms to foreign buyers more easily. In his February speech to NRA members, he said “every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office.”

A: Harris confirmed in the September debate with Trump that she owns a gun. She had said during her 2019 presidential campaign that she owned a gun for personal safety reasons, noting that she had spent her career as a prosecutor. An aide said Harris kept the handgun safely locked up, CNN reported at the time.

A: Trump told the Washington Times in 2012 that he owned “a couple of different guns” under a concealed-carry permit in New York.