Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and husband Mark Kelly.
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords is once again advocating for a federal background check measure that might not have prevented the attack in Tucson which left her and several other people wounded, and six people dead.
She was on Capitol Hill with husband Mark Kelly, the former astronaut, to help re-launch a gun control measure aimed at closing “loopholes that now let criminals and dangerously mentally ill people buy guns,” according to The Hill.
But the man who shot her more than four years ago passed a background check.
The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act, sponsored by Reps. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Robert Dold (R-Ill.) is aimed at strengthening the National Instant Check System (NICS) and provide “incentives” to states to improve reporting of criminals and mentally ill people to the database.
Second Amendment advocates have argued repeatedly that people who are dangerously ill should be institutionalized.
According to the Arizona Republic, the legislation contains protections for gun owners. If passed, the bill would prohibit creation of a federal gun registry and make it a felony to misuse gun sale records. There are exemptions for family and friends, the newspaper said, making it less stringent than the gun control measure passed in November by Washington State voters, and which Giffords traveled to the Evergreen State to support.
A similar measure proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Pat Toomey was defeated two years ago.
There are critics of this new effort. According to WTIC, the local Fox affiliate in Connecticut, Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, says the revived measure has ultimately the same goal as other gun control proposals.
“This is yet another attempt at gun control geared towards ultimately eradicating our rights,” Wilson said. “While no one wants guns in the hands of violent criminals, this proposal will not prevent that. There are already laws in place that make it a crime for violent felons and certain others from possessing guns. Criminals by nature routinely break the law. Countless arrests of convicted felons arrested with firearms proves this fact.”
