Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is urging key senators to support expanded background checks for gun purchases in a new television ad that is to begin airing Tuesday in Arizona and Iowa.
Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun control group started by Giffords and husband Mark Kelly, said it is spending six figures on the ads in two states with strong gun traditions. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up tougher firearm regulations Wednesday.
"There are solutions we can agree on, even gun owners like us," Giffords says in the commercial over a closeup of her and Kelly looking directly into the camera. "Take it from me, Congress must act. Let's get this done."
The ad opens with black-and-white images from vigils after high-profile mass shootings at a Colorado movie theater, a Wisconsin temple, a Connecticut elementary school and the attempt on Giffords' own life outside an Arizona grocery store, which also left 12 others wounded and six dead.
"We have a problem," she says, "where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school."
The ad says the overwhelming majority of people in the respective states — eight of 10 in Arizona and nearly nine of 10 in Iowa — support universal background checks and urges viewers to contact their senators to ask them to support the measure as well. It targets two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who have an A rating with the National Rifle Association — the top Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona — along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has indicated he'll probably support background checks. It also mentions Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who supports expanded background checks.
Giffords also plans a news conference Wednesday in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz., with others who survived the shooting rampage two years ago at one of her constituent meetings
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