Hillary Clinton, in SF visit, calls gun safety ‘a political necessity’

After receiving 2018 Courageous Leadership Award, Hillary Clinton speaks at Giffords Law Center's 25th Anniversary Dinner at Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, CA on Thursday, June14, 2018. After receiving 2018 Courageous Leadership Award, Hillary Clinton speaks at Giffords Law Center's 25th Anniversary Dinner at Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, CA on Thursday, June14, 2018. Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Hillary Clinton, in SF visit, calls gun safety ‘a political necessity’ 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Speaking to an audience of gun control advocates in San Francisco, Hillary Clinton said Thursday that this year’s voting for members of Congress should “finally be the election that turns the tide against the gun lobby.”

“The vast majority of Americans are on our side,” the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate said at a Hyatt Regency dinner gathering of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which presented her with its Courageous Leadership Award. “So we are winning the debate. But now we’ve got to get everyone to vote on this issue.”

“It will not be easy,” she said, recalling the National Rifle Association’s multimillion-dollar participation in the 2016 presidential campaign.

President Trump, Clinton said, “did everything he could to ingratiate himself with the gun lobby, and is now doing everything he can to gut existing laws.” She cited his approval of legislation last year that allowed some mentally disabled people to buy guns and his removal of the names of 500,000 fugitives from the federal background check system.

Clinton spoke to an organization that was founded 25 years ago in the wake of the 101 California St. shooting, when a gunman killed eight people and wounded six at a downtown San Francisco law office before taking his own life. The organization merged two years ago with a like-minded group founded by Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting that took six lives.

Giffords spoke briefly Thursday, telling supporters that “on election day, your voice matters.” Also appearing were survivors of the Feb. 14 high school massacre in Parkland, Fla., where a teenage gunman killed 14 students and three teachers and wounded 17 others.

“I live every day like it’s my last,” Olivia Wesch, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told the audience. “If the people we call adults and politicians can’t make this change, then my generation will.”

Clinton, in her 20-minute presentation, remembered consoling survivors of another school shooting, at Columbine High School in Colorado, when she was first lady in 1999. Twelve students and a teacher were killed.

“It was my first experience of far too many meetings,” she said. “It’s chilling to see kids carrying signs,” like those that read, “Am I next?”

While other nations with advanced economies have curbed gun ownership, she said, “the United States of America made a cruel choice. Our inaction on gun violence has deadly consequences,” with 33,000 deaths annually.

It’s time, she said, to show the nation’s leaders that “gun safety is not just smart policy, it’s now a political necessity ... to take our country back in the direction of protecting our kids.”

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko