Senate Republicans host gun extremists who want to abolish background checks

WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released a statement raising alarm about the radical views held by the Republican witnesses on the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Leaders of the extreme organizations Gun Owners of America and National Association for Gun Rights, who are appearing this morning, would abolish background checks on all types of guns.

“Americans don’t want dangerous people to have machine guns. Senate Republicans’ so-called experts do. These extremists are fighting to abolish all background checks and remove all restrictions on machine guns – that is pure insanity and Senate Republicans must answer for it,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “Democrats and Republicans across the country understand that good gun laws prevent gun crime — that’s why polls routinely find that commonsense policies like background checks, red flag laws and safe storage are so popular. This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about mainstream views versus radical ones. Based on today, it’s clear Senate Republicans are siding with the radicals.”