Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Former Rep. Gabby Giffords endorses Andrew Gillum
Citing mass shootings and daily death tolls from gun violence, the anti-gunviolence group founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords endorsed Andrew Gillum for Florida governor on Wednesday.
“We are endorsing Andrew today because he acknowledges the heartbreak gun violence causes in his state, and he is working to stop it. His leadership will be critical for our next victories in Florida to prevent future tragedies,” the former congresswoman said in a statement.
She said Gillum “has the courage to stand up to the corporate gun lobby.”
Giffords emphasized the “epidemic” of people killed every day by gun violence. “Florida has not been immune to this deadly crisis — somebody is killed by a gun in the state every three hours,” she said.
Florida has also been the location of three mass shootings in recent years: the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland in which 17 people were killed, the 2017 shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that killed five people and the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando in which a gunman killed 49 people.
Hours after the Stoneman Douglas shooting, the Giffords organization launched a national #VoteCourage effort to encourage people to support candidates in November who will “stand up to the gun lobby and fight for safer communities.”
The organization’s endorsement labels Gillum as a “gun safety champion” and includes him in the #VoteCourage effort.
Six days after the Stoneman Douglas massacre, the Giffords organization launched an ad campaign against Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican running for U.S. Senate, “for repeatedly siding with the gun lobby over public safety.”
Giffords was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona. At the beginning of her third term, she was severely injured in a Jan. 8, 2011, assassination attempt in which six people were killed and 13 injured. After Giffords resigned from Congress, she and her husband, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, formed the eponymous gun-violence prevention organization.
Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, has previously been endorsed by the Florida arm of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
He supports enhanced background checks for firearms purchases and a ban on assault-style weapons, and frequently says that “anyone who wants to fire a weapon that can fire 60 bullets in 60 seconds should join the military.”
The Giffords organization also cited Gillum’s opposition to the idea of arming teachers in schools.
Guns are a major difference between the two candidates for governor.
Republican Ron DeSantis is a self-described “big Second Amendment guy,” and his latest grade from the NRA, released in July, is an “A.” DeSantis had been a congressman from northeast Florida. He resigned last month four months before the end of his third term to focus on campaigning for governor.