Vance vs. Walz: A Tale of Two Gun Owners

J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, who will square off in tonight’s vice presidential debate, have a lot in common when it comes to guns. Both were raised in Midwest communities with long traditions of gun ownership. Both learned how to handle a gun years before they could drive a car. Both remain proud sportsmen. And both have been endorsed by the NRA at various points in their career. 

But if the moderators ask Walz and Vance what should be done about our nation’s gun violence crisis—which is now the leading cause of death for American kids and teens—you’re sure to hear two very different perspectives, which are crystallized in their very different responses to two school shootings. 

On September 4, a teenager with a documented history of troubling behavior walked into Apalachee High School in Georgia carrying an assault rifle and opened fire. Two students and two teachers were killed, and nine others were injured. At a rally a few days later, Vance referred to school shootings as a “fact of life.” He also preemptively rejected any efforts to pass new laws that might limit who is allowed to own a gun. The implicit message was clear: Gun violence is an unfortunate but unavoidable cost of living in a nation that prioritizes gun access over safety. 

Six years earlier, Tim Walz came to the opposite conclusion. On Valentine’s Day of 2018, another teenager with a documented history of troubling behavior walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida carrying an assault rifle and opened fire. Fourteen students and three staff members were killed, and 17 others were injured. As a former high-school geography teacher and football coach, Walz was deeply moved  to learn that a geography teacher and a coach at MSD both “gave their lives so that their students could keep theirs.” So after a series of conversations with students, law enforcement, sportsmen, and survivors of gun violence, Walz—who was then serving as Governor of Minnesota—donated all of his NRA contributions, which totaled $18,000, to a veterans charity and pledged to enact common-sense gun safety laws. Five years and many legislative battles later, he signed a sweeping package of gun safety bills into law.

Walz isn’t the only American whose views on gun violence have been shaped by tragedy. For some of us, the pivotal moment was one of the many mass shootings that are now seared into our national memory in just a word or two. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Uvalde. Pulse. For others, it might have been the depressed uncle who shot himself with a rifle everyone knew he shouldn’t have. Or the nephew who got caught in the crossfire while walking to the playground. Or the friend whose ex-husband terrorized her with a gun.  

But however we reached this place, Americans are remarkably united in what we think lawmakers should be doing to staunch the bloodshed: pass laws to keep guns away from people who have no business owning a firearm. And gun owners agree. For instance, a Fox News poll found that 76 percent of gun-owning households support red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily remove guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others—and which might have prevented the tragedies that unfolded at Apalachee and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schools.

In this partisan age, that level of agreement on a supposedly hot-button issue is remarkable. But polls aren’t the only place where America’s common-sense consensus around guns is shining through. Just look at state governments, where lawmakers in conservative strongholds like Florida and Mississippi have passed meaningful gun safety laws. 

Or look at Washington, where the Biden-Harris Administration has shepherded through a sweeping package of gun safety measures that appear to be working as planned—according to recent FBI data, gun murders plummeted by 20 percent between 2021 and 2023. In 2023 alone, murder fell 11.6 percent—the largest one-year decline ever recorded. 

Or look at what remains of the NRA, which has seen its membership plummet by 25% since 2018, as more and more gun owners recoil from the organization’s rampant self-dealing and increasingly extreme “guns everywhere” agenda. 

Or look at the popularity of the Harris-Walz camouflage caps, which sold out in a few hours. The caps were inspired by Walz’s affinity for camo, which he picked up over a lifetime of hunting. Predictably, the NRA reacted angrily at this incursion onto their perceived turf, with one executive commenting that “a camo hat can’t camouflage the fact that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are gun-grabbing radicals.” 

But which presidential campaign is truly radical when it comes to guns? Trump and Vance, who have adopted the NRA’s absolutism on guns in an effort to shore up their MAGA base? Or Harris and Walz, who are committed to protecting the Second Amendment while also championing measures to disarm felons, abusers, and people in crisis? Whether you’re looking at opinion polls or merch sales, all signs point to voters embracing leaders who recognize the Second Amendment is not an “either/or” proposition—we can safeguard gun ownership and American families at the same time.