Retired astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is set to testify on gun violence in front of the U.S. Senate tomorrow morning.
Kelly, who will scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee at 8 a.m. Tucson time, will be talking about the need for more background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines, according to an email he sent to supporters of his new political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions.
“The next few months will be challenging and filled with many ups-and-downs, but Gabby and I know that if we stick together, we can overcome anything—even an ideological fringe that has consistently used big money and influence to obstruct progress,” Kelly said in the email.
Also scheduled to testify: The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. You can read his prepared testimony here, but here’s a key takeaway on the NRA’s perspective:
Semi-automatic firearms have been around for over 100 years. They are among the most popular guns made for hunting, target shooting and self-defense. Despite this fact, Congress banned the manufacture and sale of hundreds of semi-automatic firearms and magazines from 1994 to 2004. Independent studies, including a study from the Clinton Justice Department, proved that ban had no impact on lowering crime.
And when it comes to the issue of background checks, let’s be honest—background checks will never be “universal”—because criminals will never submit to them.
This week’s print edition of the Tucson Weekly, on newsstands tomorrow, examines how Tucsonans are lobbying Congress on new gun regulations and the challenges of instituting universal background checks.
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2013.
These newsstands of tomorrow, you mention…what are they? where are they? are they a where? The online edition maybe late Wednesday?
Mark Kelley should STFU. Who made him the resident expert. He’s a friggin astronaut, not secret agent man. Tell him to take care of his wife and stay out of acting like he knows better for us than we do.
sounds like Mark Kelly is prepping to run for some kind of political office. Like any politician using opportunity of others misfortunes to propel themselves. The hypocrisy is I bet Mark Kelly has guns,extended clips and the so called “assault rifle” or even used them before.
Gabby sure looked like she was pro gun, in the picture of her holding an A/R with a 30 round magazine. She also owned a Glock with an extended magazine. That must of have just been a political stunt to get elected in a pro firearm district?
Or, is this just a political stunt to get Mark a platform? Hard to tell what the truth is anymore.
Kelly & Gabby are playing this gun issue on sympathy. Yes what happened to Gabby was horrible but don’t penalize me for some other stupids actions. Kelly & Gabby and pro-gun controll people and politicans are not using “common sense” thoughts in voiceing their views. Same holds true on the “illegal” immigration reform. What happened to common sense??
Apparently none of the people commenting on this have had a close friend of relative severly injured or killed by a lunatic with a firearm. I hope you never have to.