U.S. still divided on gun control

Former Congress member wounded in shooting makes dramatic appearance

WASHINGTON • Severely wounded and still recovering, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords begged lawmakers at an emotional hearing Wednesday to act quickly to curb firearms because “Americans are counting on you.” Not everyone agreed, underscoring the national political divide over gun control.

Giffords’ 80-word plea was the day’s most riveting moment, delivered in a hushed, halting voice two years after the Arizona Democrat suffered head wounds in a Tucson shooting spree that killed six people — and two months after 20 first-graders and six women were slain by a gunman who invaded Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. She retired from Congress last year.

But at the same session, a top official of the National Rifle Association rejected Democratic proposals to ban assault weapons and highcapacity ammunition magazines and said requiring background checks for all gun purchases would be ineffective because the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to enforce the law as it is.

Even if stronger background checks did identify a criminal, “as long as you let him go, you’re not keeping him from getting a gun and you’re not preventing him from getting to the next crime scene,” said Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice-president.

Giffords, in her brief appearance, focused on the carnage from armed assailants.

“Too many children are dying,” she said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

“Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now.”

Guiding her in and remaining to testify was Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut who is Giffords’ husband. The

‘Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now.’ GABRIELLE GIFFORDS Former representative and victim of gun violence

couple, who both own guns, have formed a political action committee called Americans for Responsible Solutions that backs lawmakers who support gun restrictions.

“We’re simply two reasonable Americans who realize we have a problem with gun violence and we need Congress to act,” Kelly said.

Wednesday’s session played out in a hearing room packed to capacity. While both sides appealed to their followers beforehand to arrive early and fill the room, most in the public audience of around 150 appeared to be gun-control sympathizers, including relatives of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

“There should be gun control,” said Neeta Datt of Burtonsville, Md., who with Christa Burton of Silver Spring, Md., was first on line for public seats.

Both are members of Organizing for Action, the Obama political organization that is now pushing his legislative agenda.

The hearing kicked off a year in which President Barack Obama and members of Congress are promising to make gun restrictions a top priority.

Obama has already proposed requiring background checks for all gun sales and reviving both an assault weapons ban and a 10-round limit on the size of ammunition magazines, and several Democrats have introduced bills addressing those and other limitations.

After the hearing, Giffords met privately with Obama at the White House.

At the Capitol, senators’ remarks during the hearing illustrated the gulf between the two parties on this issue.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined others in lauding Giffords but expressed little interest in curbing firearms.

“Unfortunately in Washington, emotion I think often leads to bad policies,” said Cruz, a freshman elected with strong tea party backing.

Republicans blamed the nation’s gun troubles on a list of maladies including a lack of civility, violent video games and insufficient attention to people with mental problems. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the panel, said that while he welcomed the renewed focus on guns, “The deaths in Newtown should not be used to put forward any gun control proposal that’s been floating around for years.”

Democrats countered that a need to improve gun restrictions was obvious. Republicans and the NRA are not the only hurdles Democrats face trying to push gun legislation through Congress.

It is also unclear what several Democratic senators facing re-election in GOP-leaning states in 2014 will do.