Kelly, Giffords make common-sense plea for gun control
Cal Jillson, political science professor at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, talks about the new gun control political action committee created by former representative Gabrielle Giffords and husband Mark Kelly.
By Erin Kelly
WASHINGTON — Mark Kelly believes the new gun-control group he has created with his wife, former representative Gabrielle Giffords, can attract gun owners who see the need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the wake of last month's mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.
"This may be a tipping point," said Kelly, a retired Gulf War veteran, Navy pilot and NASA space shuttle commander. "We can't tolerate 20 children and their teachers being murdered in their school."
In an interview Friday, Kelly emphasized that both he and Giffords, a centrist Democrat, own guns and support the Second Amendment right of Americans to bear arms and defend themselves.
On Tuesday, the couple announced the creation of Americans for Responsible Solutions to focus on ways to reduce gun violence....
Still, Giffords and Kelly face "a titanic struggle," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Texas.
"The gun advocates' dominant strategy is to stall, to slow things down and try to stop anything from happening while the emotional tide from these mass shootings is against them," Jillson said. "They're hoping the emotion will dissipate before any new laws can be passed."...