Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Rep. Thompson, Kelly talk gun control at shooting range

Just because his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was nearly killed in a mass shooting, doesn't mean Mark Kelly hates guns.

On the contrary.

The retired astronaut and Navy captain owns a small arsenal of pistols and rifles.

Kelly demonstrated his fondness for firearms at a gun range in Napa on Friday. He slipped two red shells into a double-barrel shotgun, raised it to his shoulder and yelled, “Pull!”

He fired once, shattering a bright orange disc as it sailed through the air.

“It's nice when you hit it,” Kelly said. “It's not fun when you miss. It's like getting a gutter ball.”

The unlikely marksman, who along with his wife is a leading advocate for gun control, has thrown his support behind a bill co-authored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, extending background checks to all gun sales, including guns sold at shows and via the Internet.

Thompson, an avid hunter who invited Kelly shooting, said the legislation will help keep guns from falling into the hands of criminals, terrorists and deranged people like Jared Loughner, who shot Giffords and 18 other people in 2011. Six people died in the incident.

Thompson said the legislation is not meant to infringe on Second Amendment rights and won't result in government intrusion.

It will merely require anyone buying a gun to to be screened, which could take as little as two minutes, he said.

“Ninety-five percent of the population believes we should have background checks,” said Thompson. “It will save lives.”

However, an identical measure failed earlier this year in the Senate when it didn't receive enough Republican votes. It was unclear whether Thompson's legislation, co-authored by Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., would fare better.

“It's going to be hard,” said Thompson, chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “I'd like to get it before the next election.”

In an effort to show broad voter support, Thompson hosted Kelly and local gun owners at the firing range Friday.

They all shot clay pigeons. Thompson, a Vietnam veteran, proved to be a dead shot in pink-tinted safety glasses. Kelly wasn't half-bad, either.

“I figured you could shoot,” Thompson told him.

Others voiced their support for the two men.

Matt Schiefferly, who owns a Napa gun shop, said background checks already are required in California, but it is too easy for people to drive across state lines or get on the Internet and buy guns.

Thompson's bill would change all that, he said.

“It's something I think we need,” he said.

Susan Rinehart, a gun club member in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, said everyone she's talked to is for it.

“I think it's a wonderful idea,” the retired government worker said.

Meanwhile, Kelly and Giffords have been spreading the word in other parts of the country. He said the couple just completed a weeklong trip, hitting seven states.

His wife, who has difficulty speaking and walking, and who has lost the use of her right arm, still shoots at targets occasionally, albeit it with her uninjured left hand, he said.

“If you got in a big car wreck, are you going to stop driving a car?” he said.