Hillary Clinton won an endorsement Saturday from a prominent figure in the gun control fight: former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
The former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, along with her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, cited Clinton’s views on guns in endorsing the Democratic front-runner Sunday.
“Time and time again, Hillary has done and said what is right, not what is politically expedient. That’s why we are supporting her for President of the United States,” the couple said in a statement.
“Most of the people running for president talk a lot about how tough they are. But most of them have shown they aren’t tough enough to stand up to the gun lobbyists. Nobody knows better than us that talk is cheap,” the couple says.
Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in 2011, and is a gun owner, has become a leading voice for what she calls common sense gun regulations, including requiring background checks for all firearms purchases.
“The president’s reasonable proposal addresses a lethal problem: People who are in the business of selling guns can avoid the current requirement to conduct background checks on their buyers by claiming not to be gun dealers,” Giffords said in an op-ed last week in the Washington Post, following President Obama’s announcement of executive actions to narrow what advocates for stricter gun laws believe are loopholes in the background check system.
Clinton, along with fellow candidate former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, has trumpeted support for background checks. Sen. Bernie Sanders has received heat from his rivals for his complicated history with gun control. While Sanders has argued for sensible gun control legislation and supports Obama’s executive actions, in the past he voted on legislation that protects gun rights.
Responding to the endorsement of Giffords and Kelly, Clinton released a statement in which she said, “As an admirer of their courage in the face of incredible odds, their service to the country that they love, and their commitment to ending the epidemic of gun violence, I am humbled to receive the endorsement of these American heroes.”
