Napa Valley Register - Mike Thompson, Mark Kelly Take Aim for Gun Control

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, had no trouble dispatching clay targets with a shotgun in a shooting range east of Napa Friday afternoon as he engaged a local gun dealer in a friendly skeet shooting competition.

But Thompson acknowledged that getting a bill through Congress to expand background checks for firearm purchases nationwide has been more troublesome.

Thompson has a bill in the House of Representatives with U.S. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., that would extend the background check system to all commercial firearm sales in the U.S. That includes firearm sales at gun shows, online and in classified ads.

His bill has yet to come to the House floor for a vote. Thompson and Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., spoke Friday at the Napa Police Shooting Range on why the bill should get a vote.

Kelly, a former astronaut, has been advocating for such measures after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last Dec. 14. His wife was wounded in the head during a shooting at a grocery store parking lot in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, 2011.

“There's a lot of deaths from gun violence,” Kelly said. “It was really Newtown that put us over the edge.”

Thompson was named a leader of a Congressional task force on preventing gun violence after the Newtown shooting.

“It's going to be hard,” Thompson said Friday. “It's going to be very hard. I'd like to get it before the next election.”

Barring that, Thompson said he intends to push for it to become an issue in the 2014 mid-term elections in Congress.

Kelly said nationwide background checks can be accomplished without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of Americans; 40 percent of gun sales are done without background checks.

“That doesn't make any sense,” Kelly said. “Why can't we defend ourselves, have responsible gun ownership and at the same time keep guns out of the hands of criminals? You can have it both ways.”

In response to fears that a national background check system could lead the federal government to create a gun registry, Thompson said it's barred by federal law, and his bill would increase the penalties for creating one.

California already has a background check system, and Thompson said his bill largely won't affect the state's residents. A background check can take less than two minutes, he said.

“It's the first line of defense,” Thompson said. “I feel very comfortable about background checks. It doesn't stop people from owning guns. This is something we can and should do.”

Matt Schiefferly, the owner of GMS Sporting in Napa, agreed.

“It really doesn't impact California gun dealers much,” Schiefferly said. “We're already doing that. We're very used to it. We're not inconvenienced by it.”

Thompson squared off in the skeet-shooting competition against Schiefferly. They fired shotguns ranging from 20- to 28-gauge, striking the clay targets as they sailed through air.

Both men agreed to call the competition a draw after several rounds. But Thompson pledged to increase his firepower if the stakes were higher.

“Now if we're going to do the next round for a dollar, I'm going to get a bigger gun,” Thompson said.

Kelly arrived shortly after that, and took target practice on his own with a .410-gauge shotgun.