July 2, 2013

Gabby Giffords Kicks Off Her 7-State Background Checks Tour by Firing a Handgun

On Monday, former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords began her seven-day, seven-state “Rights and Responsibilities Tour” at a firing range in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the first time Giffords has fired a gun since sustaining a gunshot wound to the head during a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona. (The shooting rampage, which occurred at a “Congress on Your Corner” event held in front of a Safeway, left six attendees dead and another thirteen wounded). Here’s footage of Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly at the firing range (via ABC News):

Giffords and Kelly’s “Rights and Responsibilites Tour”—which includes stops in Alaska, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Ohio—is part of an effort to revive and rally support for gun background checks legislation, which collapsed in the Senate in April. The opening event in Vegas fits with Giffords and Kelly’s insistence that, while pushing for stricter gun measures, the two are proud gun owners and staunch supporters of the Second Amendment. “I’m a patriot who believes in [the] 2nd Amendment,” Giffords writes in a USA Today op-ed this week. “My 7-state tour will promote common-sense action.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

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It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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