Giffords asks 'What is Congress afraid of?' in SOTU gun control ad
(CNN) - Gabby Giffords' gun control group will air an ad featuring the former congresswoman around Tuesday’s State of the Union address, pushing Congress to take action on legislation expanding background checks on firearms sales.
Capitalizing on the wide audience, Americans for Responsible Solutions will run the ad nationwide around the President's speech.
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Giffords, who attended the State of the Union last year as an honored guest of first lady Michelle Obama, was shot and critically wounded in a mass shooting three years ago during a political event at an Arizona supermarket. The incident left six people dead, and Giffords continues to recover.
In the spot, Giffords ask, "What is Congress afraid of?"
"Nine out of ten Americans support background checks. They make it harder for criminals and the mentally ill to get guns. Congress is afraid of the gun lobby. Tell Washington it's too dangerous to wait," she says in the ad.
The group's director, Pia Carusone, said with Americans' overwhelming support, lawmakers should adopt the "commonsense measure" of requiring background checks.
"Congress continues to listen to the gun lobby instead of their constituents, so we're going to keep fighting at the state level to make our communities safer. It's too dangerous to wait," she said in statement about the ad buy.
Following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, last year that left 20 first-graders and six adults dead before the shooter committed suicide, President Barack Obama called on Congress to enact stricter gun laws. But efforts to do so dissolved in April on Capitol Hill when a bill that included stronger federal background checks for gun purchases failed to pass the Senate.
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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"What is Congress afraid of?"
Losing big lobby money .
The question should be rather , what isn't congress afraid of ?
What Congress ought to be afraid of is the wrath of a hundred million gun owners who don't like being blamed for the actions of nuts with guns.
99.9999 percent of us have never shot anyone, but the Left keeps trying to blame us for the actions of that literal one-in-a-million.
A few weeks ago, my son showed my a cartoon:
Panel 1: A guy holding a bloody knife, a dead body on the floor, and some other guy saying, "You stabbed him to death! What's wrong with you?"
Panel 2: A guy holding a bloody baseball bat, a dead body on the floor, and some other guy saying, "You beat him to death! What's wrong with you?"
Panel 3: A guy holding a gun, a dead body on the floor, and some other guy saying, "You shot him! Guns are horrible things!"
I think that there are some that don't see the need for new laws. I think that there are also more that are afraid of the gun lobby that can raise lots of cash and support a crappier candidate to oppose the member. I think that the members of the Supreme Court made an error in judgment. It should have been about state military groups like the state reserves and to small groups that can be activated to support and protect their fellow citizens.
I bought a pistol recently and had to fill out about a dozen pages of personal information. Had I been under mental health care?, Do I have a criminal record? etc... All the information necessary to discribe every aspect of my history was required (I was being to wonder if they were going to ask me what kind of toilet paper I use). This experience told me that we already have a gun registration. So don't think the government doesn't already require registration.
Not one gun control proposal made by these gun control zealots would have made a difference at Newtown, not one.
Congress is not "afraid of the gun lobby", unless she's correctly identifying the "gun lobby" as being the majority of voters who do not support these measures. There's a reason the NRA has nearly 5,000,000 paid members and the dozen or so anti-gun organizations have a few hundred (at best) and depend on the largess of the Joyce Foundation and other big donors to remain solvent. Nice to see them throw their money away advertising on one of the least watched events possible, and one which generally only attracts the sort of political wonks who are least likely to be swayed by an emotional appeal with no substance. Nobody ever claimed the antigun groups were smart though...
Congress knows that murders by firearms have been on a decline since the 90`s. Congress know the assault weapons ban did nothing to curb gun violence. Congress knows their is something called straw buyer and or the black market. Congress knows that more intense background checks will not prevent murders. Look at all the illegal immigrants and drugs that make their way across our borders. Only a fool would think that guns couldn`t do the same. You wanna stop gun violence, drugs, violent gangs and gun violence related to drugs and gangs. Seal the border.