As Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly unveil the first TV ad from Americans for Responsible Solutions, Talking Points Memo rounds up some of the gun-control efforts to watch for this week. At the top of the list: Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly.

Giffords, who was wounded in a mass shooting a little more than two years ago, and her husband Mark Kelly have become the two of the most prominent pro-gun control voices after Newtown. The couple will be on hand for the speech thanks to Rep. Ron Barber (D-AZ) — Giffords’ former staffer who replaced her after she resigned — and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Kelly and Giffords recently launched a super PAC aimed at supporting pro-gun control politicians. Groups like theirs and one founded by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg are helping change the game on gun control, giving proponents the resources they never had to take on the NRA. To that end, Kelly and Giffords will host a big fundraiser for their PAC before the president’s address “at one of Ms. Giffords’s favorite restaurants” in Washington, the New York Times reported over the weekend.

The New York Times catches up with Giffords and Kelly at home in Tucson and reveals they are are raising millions of dollars to get engaged in gun-violence politics:

Ms. Giffords and Mr. Kelly are particularly focused on two areas that Mr. Obama is pushing: an enhanced system of background checks that would prevent more criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns, and a limit on the capacity of magazines.

“A universal background check would have directly affected what happened here in Tucson,” Mr. Kelly said, referring to the shooting in which six people were killed and many others, including his wife, were injured. The gunman, Jared L. Loughner, had been suspended from community college for behavioral reasons.

Ms. Giffords’s two organizations have already raised millions of dollars from small online donations and from bigger gifts, including $1 million from Steve and Amber Mostyn, Houston trial lawyers, and a six-figure donation from Mr. Bloomberg. The political action committee will hold a fund-raiser before the State of the Union address on Tuesday night in Washington at one of Ms. Giffords’s favorite restaurants.

“We’re going to have to have money to be effective,” Mr. Kelly said.

This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2013.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

7 replies on “Mark Kelly: “A Universal Background Check Would Have Directly Affected What Happened in Tucson””

  1. Loughner passed a background check…..that wouldnt have helped! We need more attention paid to people with mental illness or violent tendencies. Just look at the LAPD cop who is now on the run…….how does this apply in this case?? He is obviously mentally ill & has been for some time showing violent tendencies as far back as High School!!! It was never followed up on by Mental Health Professionals!!! I am sure he passed any number of “background checks”.

  3. That exactly is why he is advocating for an “enhanced system of background checks,” because the current system is clearly not adequate.

  4. I am SOOOO tired of Gabby and Mark they DO NOT speak for ANY of the Arizonians I come into contact with everyday they are on their own agenda

  5. Mark’s idea is to keep all guns out of anyone’s hands . . . bull . . . i will keep my guns here in Arizona. He can go back to Texas . . . probably get thrown out of there to. We will keep our guns here in Arizona and America. . . my deterrent towards the tyranny path we are on.

  6. Ain’t it funny…Mark is showing no respect to his wife…She was
    pro-2nd Amendment when she was elected to office.

    The anti-gun crowd are using Gabby. They realy gon’t give a hoot
    about freedom all they want is 100% people control…just like
    Hitler had over the Jews…it was real easy for Hitler to send
    the Jews to death camps (for they hand no guns to protect them
    selves). The only type of “100% registration” needed is for the fed and state to supply gun shops with “no-buy-list” This list
    should be on a public web-site. The only people on this list
    should be felons and declared mental cases…and when felons and the mental cases have been cleared their names should be removed from the “no-buy-list”. And every citizen should have easy access to be able to read the “no-buy-list”.

  7. No it wouldn’t have due to the fact that the nutcase’s past actions were never “reported” up the chain. PCC did nothing, PCC PD did nothing, Pima Sherrif’s talked to the parents, the Parents did nothing and Giffords herself only had to ask for a uniform to be there and there would have been one.

    “And they wonder how the crazy got his gun”…only to blame and castigate law-abiding owners.

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