Gabrielle Giffords had a private meeting on Wednesday with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to discuss the mayor’s efforts to push for stricter gun control measures.
Giffords arrived for the secret meeting with her husband, Mark Kelly, and together they met with Bloomberg at his city hall offices, the New York Post reported . The two arrived without fanfare and were taken by security to see Bloomberg, declining to speak to reporters.
The meeting between Gabrielle Giffords and Michael Bloomberg lasted about an hour, and afterward both declined to talk about what they discussed.
Bloomberg has taken a hard stance on gun control in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in December that left 26 people dead, including 20 children.
After President Obama spoke about the tragedy, calling for “meaningful action,” Bloomberg said the nation needed to follow through:
“With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their ABC’s are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.”
The actions of Bloomberg and other leaders have helped turn national sentiment in favor of stricter gun control, and build a formidable lobby for politicians who support gun control, Reuters noted.
Gabrielle Giffords herself has been a strong proponent of gun control. On January 8, 2011, gunman Jared Lee Loughner attacked her at an event outside a Tuscon supermarket, shooting 18 people and killing six.
