NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) — Former lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords said her patience is wearing thin on congressional reluctance to address the issue of background checks for gun owners.
Giffords, the U.S. congresswoman who was shot by a mentally ill gunman as she addressed constituents in an Arizona parking lot on January 8, 2011, said in a opinion article for the New York Daily News that she doesn’t remember a time when the nation was as unified on an issue as it is on background checks.
Giffords said 90 percent of Americans support the universal background checks that will be debated soon in Congress.
She cited the Bull Moose Society in saying 74 percent of National Rifle Association members and 72 percent of hunters also support background checks.
Giffords criticized the current system wherein responsible gun owners submit to background checks while criminals and the mentally ill are able to simply buy guns, no questions asked, at a gun show or on the Internet.
She said other related issues that should be addressed are reform of the mental health system, high-capacity ammunition magazines and the public’s access to military assault-type weapons.
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