Harris doesn’t support mandatory gun buyback programs

Did you just get catfished by a political ad? If you have been scrolling on Facebook or Instagram lately, maybe.

A group called “Progress 2028” has paid for Facebook and Instagram ads that give the impression that they’re promoting Vice President Kamala Harris’ agenda on polarizing issues, including immigration, gun control and hydraulic fracturing aka fracking. But the Harris campaign isn’t behind the ads, and they distort her platform.
“Did you know?” one ad reads, alongside a picture of Harris smiling and holding a microphone. “A national, mandatory buy-back program means fewer guns & fewer tragedies. Kamala Harris gets it!”

The same ad promotes Harris’ biography “as the daughter of immigrants.” “Let’s get ready for the next phase in Kamala’s bold progressive agenda!” it says before inviting viewers to “learn about her plan” by clicking on a blue button that redirects them to the website, progress2028.com. 

The fifth bullet on that site claims: “Kamala Harris is dedicated to making communities safer by reducing the number of firearms in civilian hands through a fair and effective mandatory buy-back program.” 

Local police departments organize gun buyback programs to encourage people to voluntarily turn over their guns in exchange for something, such as gift cards.

When President Donald Trump claimed that Harris “supports mandatory gun confiscation,” we rated it Mostly False. The claim contained an element of truth about her past position on assault weapons, but it left a misleading impression about her 2024 platform. 

During a 2019 gun control forum in Las Vegas, when Harris was running for president, she said, “I support a mandatory gun buyback program” for assault weapons. 

But we found no evidence that she supports a mandatory buyback program now in her 2024 campaign, for assault weapons or any other weapon. 

The Harris campaign did not provide comments for this fact-check. It told The New York Times in July that Harris supports banning assault weapons, but not requiring their sale to the federal government. As vice president, Harris has urged states to pass red flag laws and supported federal legislation that included funding for mental health and school security resources.

In a Sept. 19 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harris said, “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, and I’m in favor of assault weapons bans, universal background checks, red flag laws.” Harris also said she was a gun owner. But she did not say there should be mandatory buyback programs.

Who’s behind Progress 2028?

Camouflaged as a pro-Harris-Walz campaign website, the Progress 2028 website consists of two webpages — one is about its privacy policy and the other contains about 1,200 words devoted to what it claims reflects the kind of “sweeping reforms that will ensure that equity across every corner of America,” should Harris be elected. 

Adopting the kind of phrasing Democrats might use, the webpage lays out seven “policies,” refers to assault weapons as “dangerous” and calls for “common-sense gun reform that respects the rights of responsible owners.” It includes what it says are Harris’ stances for “banning fracking” and ensuring that LGBTQ+ youth have access to gender-affirming care “without fear of discrimination or parental intervention.”  

At the end of the policies page, it says “Paid for by Progress 2028.” The site doesn’t specify who’s behind it. But there are clues it’s not Harris: Harris in 2024 said she does not support a ban on fracking. Although she supports access to gender-affirming care, she has not said she believes parents should not be involved.

OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics, found the group behind Progress 2028 is the conservative nonprofit Building America’s Future. Virginia’s State Corporation Commision shows Building America’s Future registered “Progress 2028” in late September as a “fictitious name,” which is an alternative name that a corporation can use other than its legal name. The New York Times reported that Building America’s Future raised more than $100 million over the last four years. 

The name Progress 2028 alludes to Project 2025, a proposal for a Republican administration drafted by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 while the Harris campaign and her surrogates have sought to draw connections between the document and some of Trump’s policy proposals.

Meta’s ad library shows that Progress 2028’s gun buyback ads are being directed to people in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all swing states in what polls show is a very close presidential election. 

Our ruling

Progress 2028 claims to show a pro-Harris website promoting her support for a mandatory gun buyback program.

But the website, Progress 2028, is not from her campaign or her supporters and it distorts Harris’ platform. 

During Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign, she supported a mandatory buyback of assault weapons. But she no longer holds that position. She supports banning assault weapons, but not requiring buyback programs. 

We rate the claim False. 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.