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Mark Kelly is the husband of Gabrielle Giffords. Spree killer Jared Lee Loughner shot the former U.S. Congresswoman in the head. At Loughner’s sentencing, Kelly launched into a gun control tirade. Here are the remarks as submitted to reporters before Kelly addressed the court [via politico.com]:

“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 . . .

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.

Governor Brewer issued the following statement in response:

The Governor has long anticipated today. Like all Arizonans, she has looked forward to this time when justice would finally be served for our friends and neighbors killed or injured on that terrible January day in Tucson nearly two years ago. Governor Brewer knew some of the victims. She considers Gabby Giffords a friend, and has prayed for her recovery and that of the others wounded in the shooting. On this solemn occasion, Governor Brewer isn’t interested in engaging in politics.

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39 COMMENTS

  1. Edit mode:

    “We have a political class that is afraid to do something as simple as have a meaningful debate about how politicians are abusing their power and leading the common people over the edge of a cliff like the pied piper led the rats to their deaths over the cliff.”

    Fixed it!

  2. Mr. Kelly is entitled to his opinion and it’s understandable for him to feel gun control laws are now required however he’s not in charge of deciding how the rest of us choose to defend ourselves or to pass judgements on Loughner’s choice of weapons. Honestly, I think he’s missing the bigger point which is Jared was not processed by the system and restricted by existing laws because Mom was involved with government.
    If he wants to rant about something, start with the holes Jared slipped through that allowed him to buy guns. Try enforcing those laws before we start down the new gun laws path.

  3. Why is it that no one bothers to focus on the real problem. The criminal or the nutcase BEHIND the gun.

    Maybe Mark Kelly would like to look at the violent crime rate in a country with some similar demographics as the U.S., but with restrictive gun laws.

    England. Which has a violent crime rate that is over 4 TIMES as high as the U.S.

    Gun control is sure working for the English.

  4. A better healthcare system, and in particular, a mental-health system significantly better than what we have today is the single best way to manage the risk of incidents like this.

    • Not going to happen.

      Those on the right of he political spectrum talk a good game about “enforcing existing laws” but as soon as someone mentions that that means spending money on the care and treatment of the mentally ill they either get real quiet or get real loud about the mean ol gubmint spending their money on non-job creators.

  5. I would not be surprised to see Mark Kelly join forces with the Bradys as a high-profile spokesman.

    Jared Lee Loughner will rapidly fade into obscurity. But, the demonization of his weapon-of-chioce will live on forever.

    No other person nor any magazine type is to blame for this criminal act but Loughner. Being a former astronaut, Mr. Kelly certainly possesses the intelligence to comprehend this.

    • Is there any contact information for Mark Kelly? I’d like to send him a 33 round Glock 17 magazine with a note “You can come and take it yourself, if you’ve got the balls”.

      • That would be a totally rational thing to do, and it wouldn’t damage the public perception of our movement in any way.

        • Nothing short of declaring that you want to send all guns into the sun (a la Superman IV) will satisfy people like him. Worrying about the opinion of your enemies is how we got gun control in the first place.

        • If you think you can articulate anything but unconditional surrender with a fanatic like him, you’re sadly mistaken.

          I’m sure you’d give him a strongly worded “Well, I’ll let you ban anything over 10 rounds and anything larger than a .22, but that’s where I draw the line!”

  6. “feckless” — that will be a new word in the media for sure. It does not surprise me between the Obama win Giffords being a Democrate and the charge of “never letting a good crises go to waste” — her husband was not going to respond in any other way.

    Its a great setup for the Brady Bunch and their agenda.

    As someone already said, the system failed fix that.

  7. Given what they’ve been through I’m going to have to say that these folks are entitled to voice their opinion. While i might not agree with it, they certainly have earned the right to voice them. Hers hoping that Gabby Giffords continues her recovery.

  8. I can certainly understand his rage and his frustration, no doubt about that. I would probably even understand it moreso if his wife’s would-be killer faded into the crowd, dropping his Glock and escaping to infamy- Because you’ve got to blame -something-, right? That’s just how people work. Doesn’t make it any less misguided, but at least it’s something I can understand.
    But in this case, where you have the sick SOB Right In Front Of You, to still take time out of giving him a piece of your mind to decry the tool he used….it’d be like getting rear-ended by some dickhead playing with his phone, reading him the riot act, and then turning to his car with “And as for YOU, Mr. 2004 Subaru Legacy, you make me sick. All your kind does is ruin things. They should send you all to the scrapyard.”

  9. I’ll prefer to keep my rights to protect myself from people like Loughner. Maybe if more people exercised those rights he could have been stopped sooner?

    • There was a ccw holder there when the event occurred and he was carrying at the time. He was one of the people that tackled the shooter. He chose not draw because there were so many people around. Make no mistake, Loughner was able to get all 30 rounds off in a matter off seconds resulting in 19 people shot.

      • And it’s a real shame he didn’t drop Jared right then and there. Would have saved the taxpayers millions and we wouldn’t have his snarkly mugshot to remind us of him.

  10. Since common sense isn’t, I think Mark Kelly will continue to faultily process this incident. He may not be able to reconcile what he may perceives as a failure to protect his wife from this other, albeit deranged man. He cannot see the weapon wielded by Loughner as merely an extension of Loughner’s will. I wish him (Kelly) all the best as he struggles to find peace with this experience.
    Unfortunately, this still does not change my opinion that the man is suffering a rather pronounced case of cranial-rectal inversion.

  11. I’m sorry that Mr. Kelly and his wife have been through such a horrible experience. I would like for Mr. Kelly to think about legislators ( his wife included) as the people who vote to spend money on physically able Americans to stay home and not work. I propose we cancel wealfare as we know it and discuss taking care of the mentally infirm. I for one would rather help those that cant help themselves due to mental defect than have indolent takers sit at home.
    Gun control is not the solution to preventing a tragedy like what befell Ms.Giffords.

  12. If he thinks that a gun law would have saved his wife from her ordeal, then he spent to much time in space. Blackbeard carried up to eight heavy one shot guns on him.

  13. Well if my loved ones were victimized by a distraught indivisual or plain thug for that matter,it as going to happen not based on a gun but a pre determined thought out process.How about 6 thugs beating to death a sole indiviual,which by the way is not uncommon as we see esp in inner citys.Gee,how can we monitor someones thoughts even without a gun.What Mr Kelly should be talking about is how the shooter is not getting the death penalty and we the tax payer are gonna pay for his act.

  14. Not to go “off topic” here…..

    My wife and I were shopping in Tucson about 1 mile from the shooting that day…..

    But I digress….

    After this shooting, it was THE headline in the weeks and months following on every MSM channel here in Arizona…..

    They (the media) portrayed Gifford’s being shot as if she were able to walk on water……

    Fast forward to Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists murdered 4 American citizens in Libya……

    Crickets chirping……

    I don’t recall Mark Kelly being on his soapbox about the weapons that were used in Libya…..

    Just saying…….

  15. “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.”

    Couldn’t agree more. Let’s maybe discuss how the situation would have turned out had guns been more normalized and several of the bystanders had been packing weapons and had the appropriate training to employ them effectively. As nutty as Loughner and the Colorado theater killer are, one thing that seems to be pretty consistent with many of these cases is that they tend to hit soft targets. If we start hardening targets, that is going to put a certain percentage of these lunatics off their murderous rampages.

  16. Surfing the web I see Kelly was on the lame stream media “Today Show” earlier……

    I imagine he was again on his soapbox…..

  17. “We have representatives who look at gun violence, not as a problem to solve, but as the white elephant in the room to ignore.”

    There’s a touch of irony in that mixed, even bastardized, metaphor. In its original meaning, the ‘white elephant’ was a gift that impoverished the recipient.

    Captain Kelly urges more attention be paid to “gun violence”, an important, outrageously obvious and self-evident subject he feels is being ignored by government. Instead of the more useful solution of better identification and control of mentally ill, violent people, the good Captain charts a different, and dangerous, course.

    His suggested action for government is more useless legislation, which he begins by urging limits on magazine capacity. Not a whisper about the repeated instances where Loughner’s erratic behavior resulted in police involvement; but no psychiatric help, and certainly no disqualification from legally obtaining guns, resulted from that involvement.

    It appears he is willing to accept random acts of mass-murder at the hands of maniacs, if they are restricted to weapons with magazine capacities of 10 rounds. By implication, he accepts the assumed deaths of fewer victims as a goal, ignoring the much more sensible solution of removing the violent Human agent from the picture, no matter what kind of weapon he may choose for slaughter.

    Captain Kelly wishes us to have the gift of a white elephant in the form of more “gun control”. We will be impoverished by the gift, in the form of more restrictions on the innocent and sane majority, for the false promise of lessening — not preventing — the cost in lives by the guilty and insane fraction of our population.

  18. I feel sad for Mr. Kelly and his wife and the families of all the victims. That said, I fully believe that Loughner could have created as similar amount of misery with a machete.

  19. Was Mr Kelly’s views the same previous to the incident, or did someone come along and whisper a few choice lies at an opportune moment in time?

    I feel for what Mr Kelly went through, as well as what his wife has. However, I know that the tool for the crime would be the last thing on my mind if this incident hit home, or close to it… the thing that would be on my mind is getting the person who did it and having them pay for their crime of murder and attempted murder. A very human response. Blaming, condemning and crying for removal of the weapon/tool used won’t do anything about justice (or even vengeance.)

    Mr Kelly, please sit down and think it over. The weapon that did this couldn’t ever in a million years, as it was created, harm anyone without someone holding on to it, aiming it, and squeezing the trigger. It’s a tool. In the wrong hands it is dangerous to all, in the right hands it serves to protect and help harvesting food. (PETA, keep out of this, you’re more warped than the Brady campaign.)

  20. Kelly is right. it’s the gun’s fault. Before Jared Loughner got his hands on that Glock, he was a normal young American male. With hair. And no smirking. Or drooling. But the gun, it turned him into a mean killing machine. It’s not his fault.

    They’re probably watching Lochner right now. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person he is. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, “Why, he wouldn’t even harm a fly…”

  21. Mr.Kelly-the guy who shot your wife should have been executed for actually killing 6 other people.But you want to make this a rant about gun control.Please STFU and go back into space or wherever.

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