THURSDAY NEWS LINKS:

National Gun Debate Stirred Further by Testimony of Gabby Giffords & Newtown Parents

Posted byHoumanitarian
VIDEO LINK: Giffords tells Congress ‘Too many children are dying’ from gun violence (Washington Post)

Ed O’Keefe & David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
She spoke just 72 words, reading slowly and carefully from a lined sheet of paper where a speech therapist had transcribed her thoughts. One of the many things former House member Gab­rielle Giffords has lost is the congressional luxury of being long-winded.

“You must act. Be bold. Be courageous,” Giffords testified Wednesday in her first formal ­remarks on Capitol Hill since a shooting that nearly killed her two years ago. “Americans are counting on you.”

Giffords (D-Ariz.) was the first witness called by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in a hearing that served as the congressional kickoff for a bitter fight about guns.

Newtown Residents Press for Gun Control at CT Hearing (USA Today)

Other witnesses included her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who has joined her in a push to tighten gun laws. And at the other end of the witness table — and on the other side of the issue — was Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s articulate, combative spokesman in Washington.

Four hours later, a lot had been said and very little had been settled. The memory of Giffords’s appearance gradually lost its solemn hold on the participants. At one point, a female gun rights advocate told a Democratic senator that he could not understand the appeal of a high-capacity ammunition magazine because he is “a large man” who doesn’t feel as vulnerable as a woman.

But by the end, one thing seemed clearer: A consensus is emerging among lawmakers for an expansion of background checks for gun buyers, a proposal with far more bipartisan support than a reinstatement of the federal assault-weapons ban.
(Read the full story at the Washington Post)

RELATED STORIES:

LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:

STATE, NATION & WORLD: