Gun control united states, While debates over women's reproductive rights and immigration law rage on, former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is quietly and resolutely continuing her battle for gun control.
The former Congresswoman, who was shot in the head 30 months ago while at a public event in Tucson, is currently on a seven-state tour with her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, and has become the public face and sometimes voice of the gun control movement.
Giffords, 43, was joined by Kelly in a Manchester, New Hampshire, restaurant Friday as part of the nationwide Rights and Responsibilities tour that has taken her some 8,000 miles in the past week, lobbying for legislation that would make it more difficult for those with mental illnesses and criminal records to get ahold of powerful firearms.
Giffords, who still travels with a speech therapist and nurses and remains partially paralyzed in her right arm and leg, read from a prepared statement, saying that it "takes courage" to do what must be done, according to the Concord Monitor.
"I've seen great courage when my life was on the line," she told the room full of reporters and law enforcement officials. "Now is the time to come together, be responsible — Democrats, Republicans and everyone. We must never stop fighting. Be bold. Be courageous. The nation is counting on you."
Giffords was one of several who were critically wounded during the 2011 attack. Six were killed in the Safeway supermarket parking lot, including a 9-year-old girl who had aspirations of becoming a politician.
In the wake of the horrific shootings at an Aurora, Colo. movie theater last summer, and last December's Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, Conn., Giffords has become a public advocate against gun lobbying organizations, most potently, the National Rifle Association.
The nonprofit spearheaded by Giffords, Americans for Responsible Solutions, organized the trip, which has already passed through Las Vegas; Cincinnati; Anchorage; Manchester, N.H.; Portland, Maine; and Bismarck, N.D.
It will end on July 7 in Raleigh, N.C. The campaign is in part to bring pressure elected officials to deal with the issues in front of them, and is expected to raise some $20 million this summer for television spots and political appearances.
Giffords wrote in a July 1 editorial in USA Today celebrating the Second Amendment, saying: "Some might consider me an unlikely advocate for gun rights because I sustained terrible injuries in a violent shooting. But I'm a patriot, and I believe the right to bear arms is a definitive part of our American heritage."
She went on to say that with the tradition comes the need to be responsible, competent gun owners.
A May poll from the Washington Post-ABC News found that 67% of those polled felt the Senate wrongly rejected the background check bill.
A member of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, the official lobbying group for the NRA, did not immediately return calls from the Daily News.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Gun control united states
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