It took three debates, but we finally got a question (two, actually) on gun control and the Second Amendment. We also got perhaps the strangest statement ever uttered on a vice presidential debate stage, thanks to Tim Walz.  

About an hour into the debate, Republican J.D. Vance was asked if he thought holding parents responsible for their children's crimes would help curb school shootings. Question for Vance - would holding parents responsible help curb school shootings? 

Vance's answer was perfectly reasonable: it depends on the specific circumstances of the case. Sometimes the answer will be yes, sometimes no. 

Vance acknowledged that we need to do better on the issue of gun violence. The question is how do we do it? Vance pointed out that the vast majority of "gun violence" is committed with illegally obtained firearms, which was the perfect opportunity to bring up Kamala Harris's extensive history of attacking lawful gun owners in the name of public safety. Instead, Vance oddly implied that the Biden/Harris administration's open border policies have lead to cartels running guns north into the United States.  

Pivoting back to school safety, Trump's running mate said as much as he doesn't like it, there's a need to improve school security. Without hitting any of Harris's proposals specifically, Vance declared that the idea that we can wave a magic wand and take guns out of hands of bad guys isn't feasible.

Walz led off his response by noting that his teenage son witnessed a shooting at a rec center volleyball game, before launching into a staccato word salad that included the back-to-back phrases "I'm a hunter," I own guns", and "the Vice President is too". Then we got this gem:

TIM WALZ: "We understand that the Second Amendment is there, but..." pic.twitter.com/rekJ5qyrUy

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2024

That's one of the favorite strawmen of the gun control lobby; if you don't support our "common sense" gun laws, then you must care more about your guns than children, even your own. We've even seen this libel directed at the parents of kids who've been murdered in a school shooting. 

This is the chair of @NewtownAction, @po_murray.

She believes @rpetty, the father of Alaina Petty who was murdered during the Parkland school shooting, “wants children to be massacred.”

Ryan has done more for school safety than Newtown Action ever will. Po is also a bad person. pic.twitter.com/dTpUd2lHn1

— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) October 17, 2022

Walz then brought up Finland, claiming they don't have school shootings even though they have "a lot of guns". As it turns out, school shootings are not unheard of in Finland, but I don't think that really matters to Walz. He brought up Finland as part of his speil about not infringing on the Second Amendment, once again claiming that you can "still keep your guns" even though he said in the same breath that doesn't make sense to have "some of these weapons out there". Walz then mentioned Kamala Harris's work as California Attorney General, though he didn't cite any of the gun control laws she defended.

Unfortunately, neither did J.D. Vance. Instead, he went back to Walz's point about Finland, arguing that there are fundamental differences between our two countries, with the United States having higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and anxiety. Vance talked about a national mental health crisis, saying it's not the whole reason, but a big component of "gun violence". 

Once again, Vance completely ignored Harris's support for handgun bans in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., her criticism of the Bruen decision, her declaration that law enforcement could "walk into" the locked homes of lawful gun owners to see how their firearms were stored, her previous support for a "mandatory buyback" of so-called assault weapons, or any of the other anti-Second Amendment policies she's advocated for over the years. 

Walz got the last word and question on the topic, with the moderators asking him why he changed mind on an "assault weapon" ban, which he'd previously opposed while representing a rural district in Congress. 

TIM WALZ: "I'VE BECOME FRIENDS WITH SCHOOL SHOOTERS."

WHAT pic.twitter.com/zgYzydqPbK

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2024

Tim Walz has become friends with school shooters, plural? One would be weird enough, but just how many school shooters is Tim Walz palling around with? I have no idea what Walz is talking about, but I can't wait to see the campaign spin about that comment. 

Walz ended his response by essentially accusing Vance of stigmatizing mental illness. and said that when it comes to violence, "sometimes it's just the guns." 

While Vance missed a couple of perfect opportunities to inform voters about Kamala Harris's anti-2A extremism, his answers were generally thoughtful and substantive. Walz, on the other hand, sounded like he was going through a mental checklist at times, and never got beyond talking points and bumper sticker slogans. 

It was an interesting approach by Vance. He wasn't talking to gun owners to reassure them that the Trump administration was going to protect their Second Amendment rights. Instead, he was talking to parents and telling them that the Trump administration didn't need to go after the Second Amendment in order to protect their kids. 

I still think he could have done so while documenting the extreme positions Kamala Harris has taken; after all, there are plenty of parents out there who own and carry a firearm in order to protect their kids, and Harris has repeatedly made it clear she has a problem with that. But on both points and substance, I'd give the edge to Vance. If nothing else, he didn't bring up any friendship with school shooters.