House Democrat: ‘Majority’ of NRA members would back stricter gun laws

The House Democrat elected to replace former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) on Monday said he believes the majority of National Rifle Association (NRA) members would back new gun-control laws.

“There are a lot of NRA members in this country, and we have significant evidence to suggest that they are not all opposed,” Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) said Tuesday on CNN. “In fact, there may well be a majority who are in favor of some limitations on the assault weapon availability.” 

Barber recounted an anecdote about a hunter and gun enthusiast from his district who told him he would favor some gun restrictions.

“This is not about taking away people’s guns,” Barber said. “This is about preventing mass shootings and doing so through providing mental health services and reducing access to these assault weapons and the high-capacity magazines that shot us in Tucson.”

Barber was among the 19 people, including Giffords, who were shot in 2011 by Jared Lee Loughner at an event in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords was shot in the head at the event, and stepped down last year to concentrate on her recovery. Six people were killed in the incident.

Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, launched a new effort to promote gun-control laws on Tuesday, the two-year anniversary of the Tucson shooting.

In an op-ed in USA Today, Giffords said her new group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, would “raise the funds necessary to balance the influence of the gun lobby, and will line up squarely behind leaders who will stand up for what's right.” “Until now, the gun lobby's political contributions, advertising and lobbying have dwarfed spending from anti-gun violence groups,” they wrote. “No longer. With Americans for Responsible Solutions engaging millions of people about ways to reduce gun violence and funding political activity nationwide, legislators will no longer have reason to fear the gun lobby.”

Barber said he believed it was “possible” to take on the NRA, but that money is needed to “make a difference in communicating information and getting a message out,” which was the impetus for Giffords’s new initiative.

But the push for heightened gun control will face strong opposition from the NRA, which argues that more restrictions will do little to prevent violence.

Gun-control efforts also face an uncertain path in the Republican-controlled House. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that oversees firearms regulations, told Roll Call last month that “gun control is not going to be something that I would support.”

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