Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who survived a gunshot wound to the head, penned a powerful op-ed in the New York Times following the failure of an effort to expand background checks on the purchases of new firearms on Wednesday night.
“Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious,” she wrote. “I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.”
She also spoke directly to the power of the nation’s biggest gun lobby, the NRA:
They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.
They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest.
Read the full post here.
