Daniel Hernandez, Giffords Intern, Supports Gun Control

NEW YORK — The intern credited with helping Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head in Arizona is speaking out in favor of changes to the nation's background check system.

The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped create, said Tuesday that Daniel Hernandez supports its national campaign to close loopholes in gun control laws.

The campaign announced a push Monday to ensure that the background check system includes the names of everyone prohibited from buying guns. It also calls for every gun sale to go through a background check.

Hernandez is scheduled to visit City Hall in New York City on Wednesday.

Comments

[UberdanSounds]

11:55 AM on 01/26/2011

It doesn't have to be the way that it is, here is another activist campaign I signed & if you think these don't matter, ask the 9/11 First Responders! It started as a grass roots campaign until it got to Jon Stewart & they got their bill passed!

Earlier this month we witnessed a tragic shooting in Tucson, AZ, leaving 6 dead, and 20 others — including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords — injured. While rhetoric from the far-fight that feeds distrust and hatred towards our politicians (especially among the mentally ill) needs to be called out and countered, another factor jumps out. Someone like Jared Lee Loughner should never have been able to buy a gun.

We already have laws that make it illegal for criminals and the mentally ill to purchase guns. But a broken background check system and wide enforcement loopholes -- kept in place by the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association (NRA) -- have made it difficult to keep guns out of the wrong hands. It's time to close these gaps once and for all. You can help.

Please join us, along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns and others, in making it clear to politicians that everyday Americans support common sense reform and will stand with them if they lead in keeping guns from the most dangerous among us; and please ask your friends and family to join as well. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/guns/

[danglines]

02:26 AM on 01/26/2011

Thanks to the publicans and the nra guns and the gun issue are out of control in this country. To some people there is no compromise. These people will always be unreasonable and need to be put in their place. This situation has nothing to do with rights , it has to do with money. Only the ignorant and the greedy want nothing done, its just like oil and energy!

[Angelus2007]

03:52 PM on 01/25/2011

I bet they are against illegal guns, but not illegal immigrants.

[Lordstrom]

03:06 PM on 01/25/2011

I like how they made sure to put Illegal in the name of the group. *wink wink*

[hagagaga]

03:30 PM on 01/25/2011

I just like how they put "il" at the beginning of the words to make it sound so innocuous.