Remarks regarding gun policy

We all recall the horrific shooting in Arizona that left former Representative Gabby Giffords with devastating long term injuries, and killed many other people.  The following is an excerpt from the remarks of  Gabby Giffords husband , astronaut Mark Kelly, made at the sentencing hearing of Jared Loughner in Tucson, Arizona Nov. 8, 2012.

“Your decision to commit cold-blooded mass murder also begs of us to look in the mirror. This horrific act warns us to hold our leaders and ourselves responsible for coming up short when we do, for not having the courage to act when it’s hard, even for possessing the wrong values.

“We are a people who can watch a young man like you spiral into murderous rampage without choosing to intervene before it is too late.

“We have a political class that is afraid to do something as simple as have a meaningful debate about our gun laws and how they are being enforced. We have representatives who look at gun violence,
 not as a problem to solve, but as the white elephant in the room to ignore.  As a nation we have repeatedly passed up the opportunity to address this issue.   After Columbine; after Virginia Tech; after Tucson and after Aurora we have done nothing.,,,,
“In this state we have elected officials so feckless in their leadership that they would say, as in the case of Governor Jan Brewer, “I don’t think it has anything to do with the size of the magazine or the caliber of the gun.” She went on and said, “Even if the shooter’s weapon had held fewer bullets, he’d have another gun, maybe. He could have three guns in his pocket”  – she said this just one week after a high capacity magazine allowed you to kill six and wound 19 others, before being wrestled to the ground while attempting to reload.  Or a state legislature that thought it appropriate to busy itself naming an official Arizona state gun just weeks after this tragedy occurred, instead of doing the work it was elected to do: encourage economic growth, help our returning veterans and fix our education system...."