Vice President Kamala Harris wants the United States to be more like Australia with regard to gun control. 

Harris said as much on Thursday during a luncheon at which Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in attendance.

The Washington Examiner reports, "Albanese's trip to Washington, D.C., comes as part of a landmark deal called AUKUS, which aims to rally U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe in economic competition with China."

A big news story last week was the mass shooting that took place in Lewiston, Maine, leaving 18 people dead and many others injured. Harris, at the luncheon, decided to use this shooting to make a push for more gun control.

"Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country," Harris said. "And, let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated."

So, how has Australia dealt with the problem of gun violence? The answer is by taking away its citizens' firearms.

Vox reports:

Between October 1996 and September 1997, Australia responded to its own gun violence problem with a solution that was both straightforward and severe: It collected roughly 650,000 privately held guns. It was one of the largest mandatory gun buyback programs in recent history.

It is still possible to get a gun in Australia. You just have to give authorities a good reason for needing a gun. According to gun policy.org, self-defense would not fall into this category.

The bottom line, though, is that it would appear that the vice president of the United States is calling for the federal government to take guns away from Americans.

President Joe Biden, too, has called for more gun control in the wake of the Maine shooting.

Biden did so indirectly, saying:

Americans should not have to live like this. I once again call on Republicans in Congress to fulfill their obligation to keep the American people safe. Until that day comes, I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community – and all Americans – deserve nothing less.

This is not uncharacteristic for Biden, who has repeatedly used heightened post-tragedy emotions to push for increased gun control without ever explaining, logically, why taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding people will help non-law-abiding people to follow the law.

Unlike Harris, Biden has not called for the United States to imitate Australia's extreme gun control.

But, it is certainly within the realm of possibility that what Harris said is the Biden administration's ultimate goal, namely, confiscating Americans' guns.