Sen. Mark Kelly Thursday said gun control is an issue that is “very personal” to him Georgia high school shooting In which four people died and nine others were injured.
“This issue is very personal to me and it’s very tragic and it happens all too often in our country,” Kelly said on “CBS Mornings” Thursday. “Parents and children have the right to feel safe at school.”
Arizona Democrat former Rep. Married to Gabby Giffords, who was shot in a grocery store in 2011. She was severely disabled after the shooting. Kelly and Giffords founded a gun control policy organization named after him and became prominent advocates for gun safety despite being gun owners.
“This issue isolates our country in the worst way,” Kelly said.
Kelly, a former astronaut and combat veteran who has represented Arizona in the Senate since 2020, spoke of efforts to improve gun safety, including Bipartisan Safe Communities Actwhich President Biden signed into law in 2022. The law marked the most significant gun control measure to pass Congress in three decades, expanding background checks, among other things. But Kelly said “we have more to do,” encouraging voters to look at their candidates’ views on gun control before casting their ballots.
“You have to hold your elected leaders accountable,” Kelly said. “It’s me and my colleagues making laws — there are people who are in favor of strong laws to keep people safe and there are people who want guns everywhere and no restrictions on firearms. This is not the country we should be living in.”
As for the upcoming presidential election, Kelly, who was on Vice President Kamala Harris’ shortlist as her running mate, said that for Harris to win in November, her campaign needs to work harder than the other side and have a better message — which she argued she does.
“There shouldn’t be a contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, it couldn’t be clearer about what these two candidates are to the American people,” Kelly said.
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, DC
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