Gabby Giffords Shot a Gun for Gun Control

New York Magazine ^ | Joe Coscarelli | 7/2/2013

[nickcarraway]

As part of her seven-state "Rights and Responsibilities" tour, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords appeared at a gun range in Las Vegas and fired a weapon for the first time since she was shot in the head more than two years ago. The image is poignant, and even slightly unsettling, but serves a larger purpose: Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, firearm owners before and after she became a victim of gun violence herself, are out to prove that common-sense gun control and the Second Amendment can co-exist. As a spokeswoman for this concept, Giffords should be all but unassailable.

"Some might consider me an unlikely advocate for gun rights because I sustained terrible injuries in a violent shooting. But I'm a patriot, and I believe the right to bear arms is a definitive part of our American heritage," she writes in a USA Today op-ed explaining the tour and encouraging the expansion of background checks. "But when children are gunned down in their classrooms, when families are slaughtered at a movie theater, when a little girl dreaming of running for office is shot dead standing next to me in a grocery store parking lot, we have to admit what we're doing is not enough. We've all got to do more to reduce gun violence."

[SkyDancer]

Well that explains a lot.

[Puppage]

Sure looks to be having fun.

[stephenjohnbanker]

New York magazine, read my gun.

[Gay State Conservative]

OK,sweetiepie...repeal the Second Amendment.It's been done,it ain't easy but certainly “do-able”.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Giffords lies just like Obama, with ease and purpose.

[Gay State Conservative]

Hang on...does that magazine hold more than 10 rounds?

[thorvaldr]

Mark Kelly is a lying, fascist, hypocrite

[newnhdad]

she realizes that under the “enhanced background checks” she would probably be disqualified from owning a gun because of her diminished mental and physical condition.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Camel’s nose “gun control” and the Second Amendment CANNOT coexist. That’s a Nazi myth.

[stevie_d_64]

Hypocrisy knows no limits...

And there is NO such thing as “common-sense gun-control” laws...

They cannot co-exist...It will always be in conflict with one another...

[BitWielder1]

Explain to me how making it harder for law abiding people to defend themselves will reduce crime.

[Tenacious 1]

If they did a background check on Ms. gifford, they might find that she has had a recent brain injury that has significantly affected her mental capacities and potentially influenced her sense of reason and judgement. I suspect she would not be allowed to own or handle guns should her cause be rewarded with passage of the bill she is promoting.

She may well have already committed a future crime in the firing of this weapon.

[Puppage]

Hang on...does that magazine hold more than 10 rounds?

Only a freedom restricted New Englander would catch that...well done!

[nickcarraway]

This is one of the comments under the article: Only in America can someone be shot in the head and then proclaim that they love guns.

By that logic, they think we should hate all Muslims.

[JoeFromSidney]

Lean into it, woman. Get your center of mass over your toes, not over your heels. A strong recoil will plant you on your butt.

[Impala64ssa]

Isn’t that kinda like fornicating for abstinence?

[Gay State Conservative]

Only a freedom restricted New Englander would catch that...well done!

I'm not just *any* New Englander,I'm from the Gay State.(Check my profile for an explanation of the term).

[McGruff]

Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, firearm owners before and after she became a victim of gun violence herself,

So what are you protesting for? Or do you even know?

[Jewbacca]

Might get make up all over the stock.

(Funny story, Mrs. Jewbacca got completely chewed out by her DI for wearing makeup and getting it on her rifle. Can relate the dressing-down in detail to this day.)