Tagged: Gabrielle Giffords

After the Senate failed to pass bipartisan legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases, the superPAC created by shooting victim and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, onetime astronaut Mark Kelly, vowed to remind voters of which lawmakers voted against the plan.

Some people are born to be pastors or therapists, but no one goes into politics expecting to help people with grief.

Yet mayors and governors often find themselves having to cope with tragedy. A tornado. A bombing. The death of a police officer, or a little girl.

It becomes an essential part of the job more often than they might expect. While they're rarely prepared for it, how they respond will define their time in office perhaps more than any other act.

The Senate was due on Tuesday to take up legislation embodying the bipartisan compromise reached by two senators, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey.

The effort to extend background checks to weapons purchases at gun shows and online received a boost over the weekend when an important gun rights group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, announced its support for the measure.