AP Photo/Michael Wyke

Before she was a United States Senator, Kamala Harris was the attorney general for the state of California. She’s an attorney, like so many other legislators. She studied and worked in the profession people approach for clarification on the laws of this great nation of ours.

Apparently, she managed to get to that point without ever attending a single civics class.

In the presidential hopeful’s latest effort, she’s decided that in her quest to dictate gun control by fiat, she’ll also go after AR-15s and other so-called “assault rifles.”

Kamala Harris’ expanded her unilateral crackdown on guns.

At a presidential campaign event Wednesday in New Hampshire, Harris pledged to take executive action banning the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons — a move that came just three weeks after the California Democrat rolled out her sweeping gun-control proposal.

“When we look at the issue of assault weapons, let’s be very clear: Assault weapons are designed to kill a lot of people in a very short period time,” Harris said in Nashua. She added: “We cannot any longer afford to allow people to make this a partisan issue. Those guns, those assault weapons, do not discriminate and determine, OK, is the the person pointing it at a Democrat or a Republican. This can no longer be a partisan issue.”

Except there’s a problem here.

For one thing, so-called “assault rifles” account for a tiny minority of the crimes committed in this country. In 2016, 374 people were murdered with rifles in total. That’s not just “assault rifles,” either, but any rifle. Grandpa’s bolt action falls into the same category as Joe’s Class III M-60. That means the number of “assault rifles” used is probably lower.

Fewer than 400 people were killed with the weapons. Then why the extreme focus on them?

It’s simple. They’re scary looking. Harris wants to ban them because they have a bad reputation and she thinks it’s a winning issue for her. She’s not wrong…for the primary. The general election, however, will turn into a different matter entirely.

Harris has started her crusade on “assault rifles” as we approach the one-year anniversary of the Santa Fe High School shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. It’s ironic that she does that, too.

You see, while Harris is prattling on about “assault weapons” and focusing on mass shootings–which make up a ridiculously small fraction of homicides each year–Santa Fe serves as a stark reminder that banning AR-15s won’t make the problem go away. After all, the killer in Santa Fe used a shotgun and a handgun.

Further, the most deadly school shooting in American history remains the Virginia Tech massacre. That killer used two handguns.

None of that seems to register with Harris as she declared her intention to sign executive orders banning the sale of AR-15s as well as the import of other so-called “assault rifles.” The fact that imports of “assault rifles” are already banned and have been for years suggests that Harris isn’t as up-to-date on gun control laws as she may like to present to the voters.

Though, quibbling on details like that don’t matter.

What does is that this woman, a woman who thinks she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, believes she can get elected to office and then get away with doing this kind of crap. She honestly thinks she can create gun control laws with the stroke of her pen.

President Obama signed some anti-gun executive orders during his time in office, but their impact was minimal. For all his faults–and there were many, to be sure–he clearly didn’t think he could create laws by dictate.

Harris seems to think she can. If she’s elected and does this and gets away with it, what’s next? What else will she do because she doesn’t think Congress is acting quickly enough?

What Harris doesn’t get is that Congressional passage of bills isn’t a formality that has to be observed before a president can do what they want. It’s how laws are created. They’re not a rubber stamp on the president’s agenda. They’re a check on executive power.

Harris wants to neuter that check.

Frankly, anyone who values domestic tranquility should be scared to death at that prospect.