July 2, 2013

Gabby Giffords Kicks Off Her 7-State Background Checks Tour by Firing a Handgun

On Monday, former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords began her seven-day, seven-state “Rights and Responsibilities Tour” at a firing range in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the first time Giffords has fired a gun since sustaining a gunshot wound to the head during a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona. (The shooting rampage, which occurred at a “Congress on Your Corner” event held in front of a Safeway, left six attendees dead and another thirteen wounded). Here’s footage of Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly at the firing range (via ABC News):

Giffords and Kelly’s “Rights and Responsibilites Tour”—which includes stops in Alaska, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Ohio—is part of an effort to revive and rally support for gun background checks legislation, which collapsed in the Senate in April. The opening event in Vegas fits with Giffords and Kelly’s insistence that, while pushing for stricter gun measures, the two are proud gun owners and staunch supporters of the Second Amendment. “I’m a patriot who believes in [the] 2nd Amendment,” Giffords writes in a USA Today op-ed this week. “My 7-state tour will promote common-sense action.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate