Email I received from Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly
Robert -
We started our organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, on January 8, 2013, the two-year anniversary of Gabby's shooting, which left six dead and 13 injured. We're gun owners, but we've always been supportive of responsible solutions to reduce gun violence. Despite the 2011 tragedy at the Safeway in Tucson, it wasn't until the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that we decided to devote ourselves to the issue.
We closed out the month of January by testifying together in front of the U.S. Senate. Gabby urged members to vote for expanded background checks. “Speaking is difficult,” she said. "But I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act."
In March, Mark demonstrated how simple and quick it is for a law-abiding citizen to pass a background check before buying a firearm: 5 minutes and 36 seconds, to be exact. In our investigative video, he read through some of the questions on the form that help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill.
We didn't get the federal legislation we hoped for in 2013, but a number of states took important action to reduce gun violence. Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland all passed laws to expand background checks this year. Since the Colorado law went into effect, seventy-two sales were blocked because the would-be buyer was convicted of or charged with a serious crime, or was under a domestic restraining order. The other 98% of sales "went through without a hitch."
On April 17, 2013, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence: nothing at all. Legislation introduced by conservative Senators from both parties was filibustered by a minority of Senators who stood with the gun lobby instead of taking action to keep our communities safer from gun violence. Together, we pledged that "if we cannot make our communities safer from gun violence with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress."
We kicked off our Rights and Responsibilities tour around the Independence Day holiday. The tour was a 7-state trip to renew the conversation about preventing gun violence. We met with members of the media, law enforcement and gun owners, visited gun dealers and ranges, and even joined a July 4th parade in Ohio. During the tour, Americans for Responsible Solutions signed up its 500,000th member.
On July 26th Americans for Responsible Solutions received its 100,000th individual contribution. Our organization is different from any other political organization out there. We've leveraged the power of individual small-dollar donors to drive the change we seek in Congress and state capitals across the country.
On the final day of July, the U.S. Senate confirmed B. Todd Jones as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency’s first director in 7 years. On the day of his confirmation, Americans for Responsible for Solutions members signed tens of thousands of petitions and made thousands of phone calls into individual Senate offices. Director Jones was confirmed after North Dakota's Senator Heidi Heitkamp flew from her home state to DC in order to cast the deciding vote.
Three for three in Virginia! Last month, we pledged to match the NRA dollar-for-dollar in the three statewide races happening in Virginia. Governor-Elect McAuliffe and Lt. Governor Northam were both declared winners on election night. Last week Attorney General-Elect Herring officially won in a razor-thin race that came down to a recount. The AG's race is yet another example of why every volunteer and every vote counts.
We closed out the year by working with Congress to extend the Undectable Firemarms Act -- the law that prohibits the sale and distribution of weapons that can pass through metal detectors. The bill was an example of how Congress can work together to keep our communities safer from gun violence when it chooses to do so.
Thank you for all of the work you did to reduce gun violence in 2013. It's going to be a long and difficult struggle that will require us to work state-by-state, senator-by-senator, and representative by representative to create change. None of our accomplishments would have been possible without you, and we can't wait to see what's in store for 2014.
All the best,
Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly
Keeping up the good fight.