ALBANY — Former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, is set to tour a New York gun show.
Giffords and husband Mark Kelly, a former combat pilot and astronaut, are scheduled to be with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at the Saratoga Springs Arms Fair on Sunday to highlight a voluntary agreement and stricter state gun-control law. It will be the latest event by Giffords and Kelly in their national campaign for expanded background checks for gun sales.
A state law enacted this year with a push by Gov. Cuomo expanded a ban on military-style weapons, requires mental-health professionals to report threats, limits magazines, taxes bullets and creates a registry to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
Separately, Schneiderman worked closely with all 35 gun-show operators in New York to adopt stringent new rules to track sales. Under those agreements, all firearms are tagged at the entrances to gun shows; operators must provide computer stations for sellers to do national background checks; guns are checked as they are taken away through a limited number of exits to make sure background checks were performed; and no buyers can leave a show without documentation of a proper sale.
Kelly said the system could be a national model. “The state’s model helps keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them . . . without infringing on our Second Amendment rights,” he said.