Giffords Condemns Governor Ducey For Passage of Gun Package that Fails to Address Crisis
Washington, DC — Giffords, the gun safety organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly, released the following statement reacting to the legislative vote on Governor Ducey’s plan to address gun violence and school safety in Arizona.
Peter Ambler, Giffords Executive Director:
“This partisan vote ultimately reflects Governor Ducey and the legislature’s decision to stop working on a bipartisan solution that would protect our kids and communities from gun violence. Arizonans have spoken out on this issue, but their voices have been ignored while backroom deals were made with NRA lobbyists.
“As a result, the package fails to close loopholes that allow criminals and other dangerous people to buy guns without a background check, and it fails to provide families and law enforcement effective, proven tools to get guns out of the hands of individuals who are a threat to themselves or others. In the past few weeks, Democrats and Republicans in states across the country have come together to pass laws that protect us from shootings while also protecting Second Amendment rights. It’s deeply shameful that Arizonans’ legislature instead chose to capitulate to monied special interests.”
Important policies that could help prevent the next mass shooting in Arizona, include:
- Extreme Risk Protection Orders: Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws enable law enforcement and families to petition a court for an order temporarily prohibiting a person from purchasing or possessing firearms. These orders are sought when a person demonstrates behaviors that indicate pose a significant danger to themselves or others. ERPO laws are exactly the type of policy that could help people struggling in crisis, including the shooter in Parkland, Florida, as the shooter’s classmates, teachers, family members, and law enforcement officers appear to have been aware that he was exhibiting clear warning signs of dangerousness.
- Expanding Background Checks: There is no gap more glaring in our gun laws than the federal background checks law, which allows felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill to purchase firearms at gun shows and online without undergoing a background check. In states that require background checks for all handgun sales 47% fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners, there are 47% fewer firearm suicides, and 53% fewer law enforcement officers are shot to death by handguns.
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Giffords is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. Led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Navy combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, Giffords inspires the courage of people from all walks of life to make America safer.