Giffords promotes gun background checks in Ohio

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

A former congresswoman injured in a mass shooting has stopped in Cincinnati as she tours seven states to push efforts aimed at keeping guns away from criminals and the mentally ill.

Gabby Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, joined the Fourth of July parade Thursday after making a public appeal for expanding gun buyer background checks.

Giffords said addressing gun violence will require bipartisanship. The longtime gun owner has been lobbying in recent months for policy changes aimed at reducing gun violence.

Giffords was shot in the head at a meet-and-greet with her constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2011. She has undergone painstaking physical and speech therapy, and she reluctantly resigned her seat in Congress.