Here is an article from Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, from CNN.com saying that some sort of action needs to be taken on gun control. In January of 2011, Giffords was shot at a constituent meeting in Tucson, and a year later she was forced to resign to focus on her recovery.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/22/opinion/kelly-gun-loophole/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7
(CNN) -- I served in the armed forces for 25 years, but
until January 8, 2011, I didn't think about guns or gun violence that
much. I had other things to think about -- my children, traveling
between Houston and Tucson and Washington to see my wife, Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords, and of course, flying the space shuttle.
Like lots of people,
every time there was a mass shooting, with lots of news coverage, I
watched, but I wasn't aware of the statistics and of how gun violence
permeates our country.
Then Gabby was shot and
six of her constituents were murdered during a "Congress on Your Corner"
event in Tucson, Arizona. During her long and ongoing recovery, I
started paying a lot more attention.
I'm a numbers guy, a
statistics guy -- and what I've learned has shocked me. Almost 100
people a day die from a gun, 33 are murdered. We've got 20 times the
murder rate of similar countries.
I've watched the globe
spin past below me from the window of the space shuttle. And so my
perspective has changed. I see this epidemic of gun violence as a
crisis, because I know that every statistic is a citizen --- someone
like my wife, or Hadiya Pendleton's mom, Cleopatra, who says simply
about her daughter, murdered senselessly in Chicago, "a piece of my
heart is gone." And, excuse the reference, it doesn't take a rocket
scientist to realize that while this issue is complicated, there are
things we can do -- now, together -- that will reduce violence.
Like background checks.
Right now, we have two systems. Some people, like me, when we buy a gun,
we go through a background check. It takes about five minutes -- trust
me, I'm not known to be a patient guy, and it didn't take more than a
few minutes when I bought a rifle this past November.
Ninety-one percent of
background checks are completed instantaneously, and they don't lead to a
government database. And they work. I passed my background check and
got my gun, and since 1994, more than 2 million folks -- among them,
criminals and dangerously mentally ill people -- failed their background
checks. But we don't know which of those millions just got in their car
and drove to a gun show, or home to their computer to go on the
Internet -- both places where anyone can buy a gun without a background
check.
That doesn't make sense.
It's like saying, hey, criminals, to board the plane, either go through a
metal detector and be checked against the terrorist watch list, or, if
you prefer, walk right down that red carpet and take a seat, no search
necessary. Which would you choose?
That's why Gabby and I
are so determined to get a universal background check in place. It's
simple, it's not a Republican or a Democratic issue, and it closes a
clear loophole that puts our kids and our communities at risk, and it
does it in a way that respects the Second Amendment rights of people
like me.
We aren't naive in
thinking that expanded background checks will solve all our problems
overnight, but they are a great first step that even gun owners support.
So, I'm putting
everything I learned from my time in the Navy and at NASA -- 375
aircraft carrier landings, 39 combat missions and more than 50 days in
space -- to working with Gabby and Americans For Responsible Solutions'
more than 100,000 members to get this done.
When you're at the
controls of a plane or the space shuttle, you rely on data. You analyze
it methodically; you evaluate it objectively. The data around background
checks is clear: Up to 40% of gun transfers are made without background
checks, and a national survey of inmates found that nearly 80% of those
who used a handgun in a crime acquired it without a background check.
That tells me that criminals are getting guns, because we're making it
too easy.
And 82% of U.S. gun
owners -- including more than 70% of NRA members -- support criminal
background checks for all gun sales. Ninety-two percent of all
households in the country support universal background checks. That
tells me that citizens across the country want Congress to get this
done, because they know it will keep us safer.
That's a clear path, right there. We can get there if we all raise our voices.
Talk to your neighbors, your co-workers, the parents at your kids' basketball game. Talk to your elected representative.
Tell them you want one
system, a universal background check that will keep all of us safer and
respects our Second Amendment rights. Join Gabby and me at www.Americansforresponsiblesolutions.org.
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