Gabby Giffords is a big supporter of the Second Amendment. She believes every American should have the right to defend their home and property with a gun — within limits. THE SECOND Amendment is not at risk of being emasculated with better laws regarding gun ownership. Real men and women can still pack heat.
Giffords, in fact, still practices shooting a gun. It’s harder these days, because she can’t see so well and her right leg and arm are largely paralyzed. The injuries are a result of the former Congresswoman being shot point blank by a would-be assassin in a Tucson parking lot in 2011.
You’d think Giffords would be on the other side of the fence of gun control, but that would go against her Western roots. Giffords was born and raised in Tucson where guns are just heavy-duty bling, kind of like cubic zirconia to Texans.
The attempt on her life, and the deaths of six others in that shooting, however, has given Giffords pause as to who should be allowed to carry guns and what kind of ammunition should be made available.
Today, she favors an enhanced system of background checks and a limit on the capacity of magazines gun owners can purchase.
A thorough background check would have likely prevented Jared Loughner, Giffords’ assailant, from purchasing a gun. Just months before he purchased his weapons he had been suspended from a community college for behavioral reasons. The more recent shooting in Newtown, Conn., involved a young man who killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, in a matter of seconds because his gun was equipped with a high-capacity magazine that allowed him to spray bullets in rapid fire.
The Senate is debating gun control legislation now with the House of Representatives to follow. Please ask your elected leaders to require the weapon suit the purpose and the shooter be of sound mind.
— Susan Lynn