Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who became an activist for gun limits after surviving a 2011 assassination attempt, was in Austin on Tuesday to help launch a new organization of hunters, gun owners and firearm collectors that will press for policies intended to reduce gun-related violence.

Texas Gun Owners for Safety, which is in the early stages of organizing, will initially focus on pushing for background checks for all firearms purchases and promoting the safe storage of weapons to reduce accidental shootings, suicides and mass-fatality attacks.

Other issues will follow, and members plan to be active political participants when the Legislature is in session.

"There needs to be a voice of common-sense handgun regulations and policy, and who better to make that than gun owners?" said Alan Krov, who said he has a "pretty good collection of guns," including several for target shooting and personal defense.

The goal is to balance safety with respect for the Second Amendment, said Kevin Cruser, who grew up in a gun-friendly culture and got his first shotgun for his 16th birthday.

"I think the greatest threat to my Second Amendment rights are people that are motivated by this ideology that we can't do anything," Cruser said. "If we keep going with this all-or-nothing mentality, eventually it's going to be nothing.

"I'm here to defend my Second Amendment rights, but the Second Amendment doesn't say anything about having a fully automatic assault rifle that can mow down 30 people in 10 seconds," he said.

Cruser and Krov were among a dozen organizing members of Texas Gun Owners for Safety who met for about an hour Tuesday at a downtown Austin hotel with Giffords and David Chipman, a former 25-year agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who is a senior policy adviser for a gun safety group called Giffords, begun by Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly.

"Stopping gun violence takes courage, the courage to do what's right," Giffords said during the meeting. "Now is the time to come together, be responsible Democrats, Republicans, everyone. We must never stop fighting. ... Be bold. Be courageous. The nation's counting on you."

Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Tucson, Ariz., who was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six and injured a dozen others, helped launch similar groups in Minnesota and Colorado earlier this year.

Texas, where Republicans from Gov. Greg Abbott to leaders in the Legislature believe expanding gun rights is essential to freedom and safety, could prove to be a tough nut to crack.

Even so, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said recently that he sees an opportunity to expand required background checks to include stranger-to-stranger gun sales, saying weapons sold that way can be easily used by criminals.

Chipman said expanding background checks is a popular and potentially life-saving idea, noting that his quick check of a gun-selling website recently showed 1,700 guns for sale in Texas in transactions that would not need a background check for the buyer.

"Over 200 of these were AR-15s. This is the same weaponry I was issued as an ATF SWAT team member," he said. "And here's the kicker. This is what shocked me: For $500, I found the identical firearm used in Dayton that, in 20 seconds, killed nine people and wounded two dozen."