Gun violence survivors Gabby Giffords and Emma Gonzalez lead calls for reform: 'Vote, vote vote'

‘We can let the shooting continue, or we can act’

Gun violence survivors Gabby Giffords and Emma Gonzalez led a powerful call for action at the Democratic National Convention, urging people to "vote, vote, vote".

Ms Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, survived a 2011 assassination attempt that ended her political career and almost her life.

“I put one foot in front of the other. I found one word and then I found another. My recovery is a daily fight but fighting makes me stronger,” Ms Giffords said, in what were believed to be her most expansive public words since the shooting in the Tuscon area.

Ms Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who is running for a Senate seat in state, was seen playing a French Horn, an instrument she picked up after being shot in the head as part of her physical and cognitive therapy.

“America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words. We are at a crossroads,” Ms Giffords said. “We can let the shooting continue, or we can act. We can protect our families, our future. We can vote. We can be on the right side of history. We must elect Joe Biden. He was there for me, he’ll be there for you too. Join us in this fight.”

Earlier, another survivor of gun violence, 20-year-old Emma González, who was a student at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were shot dead in 2018, urged Americans to both to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and to push for gun regulation.

“People affected every day by gun violence have to walk by the street corner where their best friend, mother, brother nephew were shot,” she said.

“And life goes on and on as if we didn't watch a loved one get shot and put in the grave. Until one of us or all of us stand up and say, I can't do this any more, gun violence isn't just going to stop.”

People such as Ms González have sought to highlight the links between powerful lobbying organisations such as the National Rifle Association and politicians to whom they make donations. In 2016, the NRA spent an estimated $30m to help elect Donald Trump.

The activists say until this links is broken, the US will have no hope of stopping the approximately 40,000 gun deaths it experiences every year, when suicides and murders are combined. In 2017, around 15,000 were killed in homicides using guns, according to the Pew Research Centre.

Ms Gonzalez said the causes leading to gun deaths would continue “until there's a force fighting harder against it, and I'm going to do something to prevent it”.