Former Congresswoman brings gun rights group to Virginia

Sophia Belletti
Staff Writer

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Captain Mark Kelly, the Co-Founders of Americans for Responsible Solutions, joined with Virginia leaders Tuesday at the State Capitol to announce a new bipartisan coalition, the “Virginia Coalition for Common Sense.”

Giffords and Kelly founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, which is financing the new coalition in Virginia, as well as similar groups in Delaware and several other states to push for universal background checks on all gun sales and other measures to keep firearms out of the hands of people who misuse them to deadly effect

This was the national group’s second state-based rollout of the week, following one Monday in Delaware. Kelly said one or two more may be coming in a matter of months.

“Gabby and I are honored to join with so many leaders from across Virginia to fight for some common sense change and safer communities,” Kelly said. “We have a gun violence problem in our nation that makes us stand out in the worst of ways. We have to do better. We can. And we must.”

The coalition’s members,which include gun owners, former law enforcement officials, veterans, faith leaders, domestic violence prevention advocates, prosecutors and business leaders, will urge their elected officials to advance policies that help keep guns out of unsafe hands and prevent gun tragedies while protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans to own firearms.

“Stopping gun violence takes courage, the courage to do what’s right, and the courage of new ideas,” said Giffords in a speech at this morning’s announcement. “I’ve seen great courage when my life was on the line. Now is the time to come together, to be responsible. Democrats, Republicans , everyone.”

Giffords’ group targeted background check expansions as a top priority Tuesday, an idea that polls well but hasn’t stood much chance in a Republican controlled Congress.
It’s a policy Democratic Gov. McAuliffe and other Democrats have also pushed in Virginia with limited success. While licensed firearms dealers must run federal background checks before a sale, private sellers aren’t required to do so.
This is sometimes called the “gun show loophole” because the law allows people who meet at gun shows to sell firearms without a background check. McAuliffe’s deal will require a state police presence at shows around the state to do background checks for person-to-person sellers who want one.
The checks will be voluntary, not required.
Van Cleave, an influential lobbyist at the Capitol whose organization includes 6,000 members, was not won over by arguments that a universal background check and other restrictions would not stifle the rights gun owners hold under the U.S. Constitution.

“It makes it hard to get a gun,” Cleave said. “It should be extremely easy for citizens to get a gun. It’s a right.”

Van Cleave questioned the efficacy of laws requiring background checks on all gun sales, including those made at private gun shows, citing gun violence in Illinois, among the 17 states that require universal checks, and the District of Columbia.

The coalition’s leaders will fight for commonsense solutions that will help keep guns out of the hands felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill without a criminal background check.

In Virginia, criminal background checks are only required at licensed firearms dealers, not online and at gun shows. Today, under federal law, certain categories of dangerous individuals, known as prohibited purchasers, such as convicted felons, domestic abusers and some dangerously mentally ill people, are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms.

According to the WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports from 1999-2000, each year, 32,000 Americans die from gun violence. Every day, 88 Americans are killed with guns, and nearly 12,000 Americans are murdered with a gun each year.

While the number of gun murders in the U.S. has remained constant, the number of shootings has been increasing according to Everytown for Gun Safety. The number of non-fatal gunshot wounds rose more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2013.

Staff Writer, Sophia Belletti

Sophia is a sophomore print/online journalism major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. She enjoys writing about current events and sports and hopes to one day be a sports reporter, covering soccer, basketball and baseball. You can usually find Sophia drinking way too much coffee and laughing at her own jokes. // Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

bellettisr@commonwealthtimes.org