Matthew Albright

The News Journal

The Delaware Commission for Common Sense launched Monday, urging gun control reforms.

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords appeared at a Wilmington event announcing the organization.

The commission brings together more than a dozen advocacy organizations.

A new coalition of Delaware community leaders and former elected officials says it will push for several new gun control laws in the General Assembly this year.

The Delaware Coalition for Common Sense announced its platform Monday with a visit by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Giffords was shot in the head in a 2011 rampage in Tuscon, Arizona, that left six people dead and 13 wounded. Since then, she and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, have campaigned nationally for gun control legislation.

Giffords resigned her House seat to focus on the long, difficult recovery from the brain damage the bullet caused. On Monday, she walked with a noticeable limp and did not move her right arm.

"Now is the time to come together and be responsible, Democrats, Republicans, everybody," Giffords said in a brief speech at Central Baptist Church at Ninth and Pine streets in Wilmington, an area that has suffered badly in Wilmington's ongoing struggles with gun violence.

Gabrielle Giffords: Gun violence a 'women's issue'

Monday's event was the first public event for the coalition, which brings together more than a dozen advocacy organizations that have found their work touched by gun violence, including the Coalition Against Gun Violence, Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Boys and Girls Clubs of Delaware. The group is based off the model of the organization Giffords and Kelly founded, Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Coalition members say their priority is passing laws aimed at preventing guns from getting into the hands of those who could prove dangerous.

Liane Sorenson, a former state senator and coalition member, said the group supports two bills she expects to see filed before the General Assembly finishes its session at the end of June.

One would close a "loophole" that allows gun sellers to move forward with a purchase if the government does not process a background check within three business days.

House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, D-Bear, already called for such legislation in a letter sent to Delaware's Congressional delegation last month.

Some lawmakers have already said they will oppose such a change, arguing citizens' Second Amendment rights shouldn't be denied because the government isn't able to efficiently process background checks.

But Kelly said the current law allows dangerous people to get their hands on guns, pointing out that the suspect in the Charleston, South Carolina, shooting last year got a gun because of a delayed background check. Dylann Roof faces federal and state charges in the shooting, which killed nine people during a Bible study in June.

"The counter-argument is in the consequences," Kelly said. "Does the right to getting a gun a day or two days later trump an individual's right to not be murdered?"

Federal officials performed more than 10,000 background checks in January and February combined for gun purchases in Delaware, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics.

Gun purchases in the state have surged in recent years, something advocates attribute to growing concerns over personal safety raised by crime and recent terrorist attacks.

Sorenson said another bill will be filed that would provide a mechanism for family members to seek police help in confiscating the guns of someone they believe is having a mental health crisis or other situation that could lead to violence.

That would build upon a law passed last year – which Giffords and Kelly lobbied for in Dover – that tightened gun restrictions on those who are served with protection from abuse orders for domestic violence.

"This state's leaders did the responsible thing," Kelly said. "But there is a lot more work we need to do."

The group also supports a bill that would better tie the state's police agencies into national ballistics databases, which supporters hope will help investigators better track down those who use guns in crimes.

In addition to the coalition launch event Monday, Giffords and Kelly visited Christiana Hospital and met with Attorney General Matt Denn. They also attended an evening event hosted by the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence.

Robin Brinkley-White's son, Brandon, was killed with a gun at age 25. She started a nonprofit, the Brandon Lee Brinkley Foundation, aimed at fighting gun violence in Wilmington.

"Like too many people in our country, his life was cut short by a gun," Brinkley-White said in a tearful speech. "As a state and as a country, I know we can do better than this."

As Brinkley-White finished talking, Giffords and Kelly both stood up to embrace her.

News Journal reporter Karl Baker contributed to this story.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the sponsor of an event Giffords and Kelly attended Monday night; the sponsor was the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence.

Delaware Coalition for Common Sense advisory panel