GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group founded by Gabby Giffords and End Citizens United hosted a town hall Monday night at Pima Community College - Northwest Campus highlighting the ongoing fight for safer schools in Arizona.
Emma Brown, the Executive Director at GIFFORDS, Tiffany Muller, the President of End Citizens United, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, and Adelita Grijalva, Congressional Candidate for AZ-07, were all part of the the panel discussing the need for federal action on gun safety and why Republicans like Congressman Juan Ciscomani need to be held accountable.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero was also in attendance.
With gun violence being the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., prevention is at the forefront of people’s minds, especially for Kim Cartwright.
With already 33 school shootings in the U.S. so far this year, Cartwright expressed increasing concern about her daughter starting middle school.
“I'm a parent so gun safety is very, very important to me. I want my daughter to make it through a day of school in one piece," Cartwright said. "I'm very worried cause she’s in middle school now, so it adds that extra level of like, 'oh my god.'"
The panel was pointing the finger at Rep. Ciscomani saying his vote for Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill" will affect millions.
“Juan Ciscomani gutted Medicaid. I think it's 15 million people nationwide who are going to lose Medicaid coverage, and that actually directly affects victims of gun violence and their recovery. So there's that," Brown said. "There's also the fact that he's standing in the way of really basic common sense reforms and supporting President Trump, and weakening background checks and banning machine gun conversion devices and more.”
Grijalva says she wants a partner who will help implement gun laws to save lives.
“One of the first things I want to do is push universal background checks, safe storage laws — common sense, cracking down on ghost guns. We tried doing something on the county level and it got pushed back," Grijalva said.
Grijalva says voters in Arizona deserve someone who is not only going to stand up for them, but protect them.
"We cannot have somebody who is willing to sell us out at every opportunity and make sure that we're unsafe to try to build your little confer of money for your campaign," Grijlava said. "That congress is allowing this epidemic of mass shootings to continue across our country and that is not okay."
Arizona Attorney General Mayes says what her office works on constantly is stopping the trafficking of guns along the border.
"There's an estimated 200,000 firearms that are trafficked or diverted from the legal to illegal markets, from the U.S. into Mexico," Mayes said. "And in fact, that is known as the Iron River by the Mexican drug cartels."
The panel of women says it’s up to the voters if they want to see change.
“What children are going through now and the worries that parents have of whether or not their kids are going to come home safe at the end of the day is just unacceptable, especially when we can do things to fix it and to help solve the problem tomorrow," Muller said.
Visit the Gun Violence Archive to learn about the latest school incidents.
RELATED COVERAGE:
Rep. Ciscomani defends ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ amid praise and backlash
——
Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
----
STAY IN TOUCH WITH US ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
