Less than a year after Gabby Giffords and husband Mark Kelly told Essex Daily News that they “actually do not support gun control in the traditional sense,” the two appeared in Washington State to drum up support for perhaps the most “traditional” form of gun-control—firearms confiscation without due process.
After boosting the state’s “universal” background check initiative in 2015, the two are now promoting another ill-advised ballot initiative. I-1491, the “Extreme Risk Protection Orders,” would allow judges to order temporary firearms confiscation at request of “family or household members” with no due process. In front of a crowd of around 1,500, the two urged support for this circumvention of Congress and the Washington state legislature, saying, “The nation is counting on you.”
Big money played a significant role in the passage of the background check legislation, and unfortunately that may prove the case again—Steve Ballmer and Bloomberg’s Everytown group have already pledged large contributions, and we’ve no doubt Giffords is already soliciting more high-dollar donations.