Giffords touts Clinton's gun-control efforts
AMES, Ia. — Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman whose recovery from a near-fatal shooting has made her a hero to gun control advocates, explained here Saturday why she believes Hillary Clinton can bring reason to the issue.
“Hillary is tough. Hillary is courageous. She will fight to make our families safer,” Giffords told an estimated 1,100 people gathered at Iowa State University. “In the White House, she will stand up to the gun lobby.”
Giffords’ voice was a bit halting, showing the aftereffects of the bullet fired by a would-be assassin into her brain outside a Tucson, Ariz., shopping mall in 2011. “It is hard for me. But come January, I want to say these two words: Madam President,” she said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Giffords’ appearance at the Clinton rally came as the former secretary of state is trying to fend off U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in Monday’s Iowa caucuses. One of the main distinctions she has made with him is on gun control, noting, for example, that he voted to give gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits.
Sanders has denied being soft on the gun issue. Clinton didn’t mention him by name here Saturday, but she urged Iowa voters to make guns “a voting issue” and to insist on reasonable rules about who should be able to buy them.
“The facts cry out for action,” she declared. “Ninety people a day die from gun violence. That’s 33,000 people a year in our country. Homicides, suicides and tragic, avoidable accidents.”
Clinton said most Americans, including most gun owners, support changes such as requiring background checks for all gun purchases. “The actions we can and should take can certainly be done consistent with the Constitution and the rights of gun owners. That has never been in doubt, unless you’re a paid lobbyist for the gun lobby,” she said.
She said part of the political problem is that the minority of Americans who oppose all gun regulations make it their sole issue, while many people who favor stricter gun rules see it as just one of many issues. She ripped into a proposal in the Iowa House of Representatives to let children younger than 14 fire handguns with parental supervision.
“What is wrong with us?” she said, her voice rising as the crowd cheered. “How can we continue to ignore the toll that this is taking on our children and our country?”
Christina Morton, of Ames, was among the hundreds of Iowans who had waited patiently in a crowded Iowa State University atrium for Clinton, who was nearly an hour late for her first event of the day. Morton said afterward that Clinton swayed her, partly because of the gun-safety discussion.
The 46-year-old massage therapist said Clinton did a good job of showing how her proposals wouldn’t deprive Americans of guns.
“I really feel like people should be able to have guns if they’re responsible,” Morton said. She said too many politicians cower before the National Rifle Association, which makes its members fear that the government will seize their guns. Clinton seems different, she said. “I believe that she is not intimidated.”
Morton expressed admiration for Giffords’ ability to stand before a crowd and speak on the issue. “She’s the true story of what happens when a gun gets in the wrong hands, and it happens all the time.”
AT THE EVENT
SETTING: Atrium of Iowa State University’s Howe Hall
CROWD: An estimated 1,100, including college-age people and older Iowans
REACTION: Most of those with chairs remained seated through most of the program. But they applauded at several of Hillary Clinton’s points, including her promises to close tax loopholes for the wealthy and fight drug companies’ “predatory pricing.”
OTHER STOPS: Clinton made a brief, unannounced appearance Saturday morning at the “I’ll Make Me A World in Iowa” African-American festival in Des Moines. She appeared before an estimated 350 in Carroll and 1,100 in Cedar Rapids later Saturday.
WHAT'S NEXT: Clinton is to appear in Council Bluffs, Sioux City and Ames on Sunday.