Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Wednesday apologized to the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) for Congress's long silence on the issue of gun control.
Giffords was critically injured in January 2011 during a shooting rampage that led to her retirement from Congress last year. But Congress's first hearing on gun control since then did not come until Wednesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee met to discuss the issue in direct response to last month's shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn.
Durbin, a strong proponent of tougher gun laws, said that delay was a mistake and apologized to retired Navy Capt. Mark Kelly for the inaction.
"I say with some regret there should have been a hearing just like this right after your wife — one of our own, a member of Congress — was shot point blank in the face at a town near Tucson, Ariz.," Durbin said.
"I'm sorry it's taken two years for us to convene this hearing, that it took Newtown Conn., to finally bring us to our senses and to open this national conversation."
Read more on Durbin's comments during that Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence.
