Gabby Giffords Attending First Gun Show Since Shooting

Gabby Giffords will attend her first gun show since she was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011. Giffords, the former US Rep. from Arizona, will tour a New York gun show along with her husband, Mark Kelly.

Giffords and Kelly, a former combat pilot and astronaut, will take the tour with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at the Saratoga Springs Arms Fair on Sunday.

During the visit, USA Today reports that Giffords will highlight a voluntary agreement by the show to monitor sales and have stricter state gun control law.

New York already passed a law this year that requires mental health professionals to report threats, expands a ban on military-style weapons, limits magazines to seven bullets, and creates a registry to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Schneiderman is also working closely with all 35 gun show operators in New York to adopt more strict rules that track sales at each show. The stop in New York is the latest excursion for Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, who embarked on a national campaign to expand background checks for gun sales.

Yahoo! News notes that Kelly believes New York’s laws could become a national model. He explained, “The state’s model helps keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them — like criminals and the dangerously mentally ill — without infringing on our Second Amendment rights.”

Under the agreements worked out between Schneiderman and the gun show operator, all firearms will be tagged at the entrances to the gun show. Operators will have to provide computer stations so sellers can perform a background check. Guns are also checked as they are taken out of the facility through a limited number of exits, to make sure the background check was performed.

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly are scheduled to tour the show starting around noon.

[Image by Pete Souza via Wikimedia Commons]