Kamala Harris wants voters to know she owns a Glock. Talking about guns on the campaign trail is no accident, experts say.

• Kamala Harris just told voters what kind of gun she owns.
• During a “60 Minutes” interview, she said she has a Glock, a short-recoil polymer-framed pistol.
• Experts told BI that Harris might be making a strategic move by talking about being a gun owner.

Vice President Kamala Harris wants voters to know she’s a responsible Glock owner.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” aired on Monday, CBS host Bill Whitaker asked Harris about her recent comments on owning a gun, asking her which gun she has.

“I have a Glock, and I’ve had it for quite some time,” Harris said.

“Look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement, so there you go,” she added.

Whitaker asked if she had ever fired it.

“Yes, of course I have, at a shooting range,” she said.

Glock is a brand of short-recoil-operated polymer-framed pistols made by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The gun brand advertises the Glock 22 as “by far the most popular police service pistol in the United States.”

This frankness about firearms could be a campaign strategy to try to move the needle in swing states, political and communications experts told BI — and it might help fend off potential GOP attacks.

Gun ownership is widespread in the US, too. In a survey of more than 5,000 US adults conducted in June 2023 by the Pew Research Center, 32% of respondents said they own a gun.

Harris also mentioned that she owned a gun during a live-streamed interview with Oprah Winfrey in September.

And in 2019, Harris said that she carried a gun for personal safety.

Although she owns a gun, Harris has been a proponent of safer firearms usage and stricter gun ownership laws.

She oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which President Joe Biden set up in 2023 to ensure more stringent background checks and create new criminal penalties for unauthorized gun ownership.

Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, is a gun owner and hunter.

Trump has shown interest in guns.

Trump went to a South Carolina gun store in September, where he was seen posing for photos and admiring a handgun.

“I want to buy one,” Trump said in the video.

Earlier in June, the NYPD sought to revoke Trump’s license to carry a concealed weapon after he was convicted on 34 felony counts in his New York hush-money trial.

Experts: Harris’ comments on guns are unexpected

Kristin Doidge, a public relations lecturer at Loyola Marymount University, told BI that voters — especially younger ones — are watching both presidential candidates and committed to understanding their policy positions.

“Harris’ comments about gun ownership definitely feel unexpected, especially for voters here in California,” Doidge said.

But gun talk could help move the needle for Harris, especially with undecided voters, Doidge said. But issues like the economy remain top of mind for voters, she added.

Other experts said that leaning into being a gun owner may be a savvy move from Harris’ campaign, especially for swing-state voters.

“It may also be strategic to remind voters that Kamala Harris is the candidate of law and order, as a former Attorney General,” said Georgia Kernell, an associate professor of communication and political science at UCLA.

Guns are an important part of the political narrative

Jonathan Aronson, a professor of communication and international relations at USC, said that it was “reasonable” for former prosecutor Harris to own a gun and talk about it.

“I suspect the reason she brought it up was to blunt a possible attack from Trump that she was anti-police and soft on crime,” Aronson said of Harris.

Guns and the Second Amendment have become central to the Trump campaign’s messaging.

In May, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the formation of “Gun Owners for Trump,” a coalition supporting the Second Amendment.

And one of his strongest backers, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, has promised to pay $47 to people who refer voters in swing states to sign a petition pledging their support for the First and Second Amendments.

Representatives of Harris didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside business hours.