Late. Mark Kelly said Thursday that gun control is an issue that is “very personal” to him in the wake of a shooting at a high school in Georgia four people were killed and nine others were injured.
“This issue is very personal to me and it’s very tragic and it happens far too often in our country,” Kelly said Thursday on “CBS Mornings.” “Parents and children have the right to feel safe in a school.”
The Arizona Democrat is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in 2011 at a grocery store. She was left severely disabled after the shooting. Kelly and Giffords went on to found a gun control organization in her name and became prominent advocates for gun safety, while being gun owners themselves.
“This issue makes our country stand out in the worst ways,” Kelly said.
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Kelly, the former astronaut and combat veteran who has represented Arizona in the Senate since 2020, praised efforts that have been made to increase gun safety, including The bipartisan Safer Communities Actwhich President Biden signed into law in 2022. The law marked the most important gun control measure to pass through Congress in three decades, expanding background checks among other things. But Kelly said “we need to do more,” and encouraged voters to research their candidates’ views on gun control before casting their ballots.
“You have to hold your elected leaders accountable,” Kelly said. “It’s myself and my colleagues who make the laws – there are people who are for stronger laws to keep people safer and there are people who just want guns everywhere and no restrictions on firearms. That’s not the country we should have to live in in .”
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As for the upcoming presidential election, Kelly, who was on Vice President Kamala Harris’ short list to be her running mate, said that for Harris to win in November, her campaign needs to work harder than the other side and have a better message — which he argued she does it.
“The contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump should not be, could not be clearer to the American people about what these two candidates stand for,” Kelly said.