Gabby Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly (D), is running against Sen. Martha McSally (R) in Arizona, but is not mentioning his support for California-style gun controls during his campaign.
Breitbart News reported that Kelly went to Tucson, Arizona’s Diamondback Police Supply in February 2013 to show how easy it was to acquire a gun. This effort coincided with he and his wife’s post-Sandy Hook push for universal background checks. Kelly was not allowed to buy a gun because he did not have the proper ID required by the background check system that had been in place since 1998.
Roughly two weeks later Kelly went back with the proper ID and passed a background check, then bought a semiautomatic handgun. He then released a hidden-camera video of how easy it was to purchase the gun but made no mention of the fact that his first attempt was refused.
Upon passing the background check Kelly also bought a semiautomatic rifle, but the sale was terminated because Kelly made such a show of it that Diamondback Police Supply owner Douglas MacKinlay terminated the purchase, citing concerns related to Question 1 on ATF background check form 4473.
Question 1 asks a would-be buyer to affirm that he is indeed the buyer or transferee, and is indeed buying the gun for himself or having it transferred to himself. Kelly was so excited to buy the rifle that he had gone on CNN and told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer his plan was to hand the gun over to someone else all along.
MacKinlay shut the purchase down.
Yet Kelly and Giffords continued to claim the existing background check system was not good enough and pushed for universal background checks. They are pushing universal checks even now.
But Kelly does not talk about these things on the campaign trail in Arizona, which is a contender for the label of most gun-friendly state in the Union.
He is running to unseat pro-Second Amendment Sen. McSally and shave another vote off the GOP Senate majority so Democrats may, by chance, succeed in passing myriad gun controls.
Kelly began pushing for universal background checks after his wife was shot and wounded on January 8, 2011. He does not mention that universal background checks would not have hindered that attack, as the attacker acquired his gun via a background check in the first place.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.