WATCH: ‘Sometimes it just is the guns,’ Walz says in call for more firearm control

Earlier in his political career, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joined other pro-gun lawmakers in opposing an assault-weapons ban. Moderators at Tuesday’s debate asked why the governor later changed his position on this.

Walz said he reversed his stance on the ban after meeting with parents of the children killed in the 2021 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Walz then said that while mental health issues are serious, blaming gun violence on them is also not correct.

“Just because you have a mental health issue doesn't mean you're violent, and I think what we end up doing is we start looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just is the guns. It’s just the guns,” Walz said. “And there are things you can do about that.”

Walz said there’s a capacity to find solutions on this issue “that protect the Second Amendment, protect our children. That's our priority,” he said.

Vance and Walz are facing each other in their first, and possibly last, vice presidential debate, hosted by CBS in New York on Oct. 1.

Both are relatively unknown to the broader American public. Walz was a U.S. House member before becoming governor of Minnesota. Vance is in his first term as a senator from Ohio.

For more context, our partner PolitiFact is live fact-checking the debate:

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