A smiling Gabrielle Giffords toured rows of tables loaded with rifles and handguns yesterday in her first visit to a gun show since surviving a 2011 shooting, and pleaded for people to come together to stop gun violence, the Associated Press reports. The former Arizona congresswoman visited the Saratoga Springs Arms Fair with her husband, Mark Kelly, and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to highlight a voluntary agreement that closely monitors gun show sales in New York.
The trio mixed with a gun show crowd that was mostly welcoming, with a few hostile undertones. After the tour, she told a news conference, “We must never stop fighting. Fight! Fight! Fight! Be bold! Be courageous!” Giffords, a face of the national gun control effort, walked hand-in-hand with Kelly through the large room where Winchester rifles, muzzle-loaders, antique knives and other weapons were on display and “Don't Tread on Me” flags covered a wall. Under the agreements worked out by Schneiderman, all firearms are tagged at the entrances to gun shows. Operators must provide computer stations for sellers to do national background checks.