WASHINGTON[1] -- Remember when Rep. Leonard Lance[2] was one of only two House Republicans who opposed allowing mentally incompetent veterans to buy guns?
Lance, R-7th Dist., is in the re-election fight of his life[3], and a major gun control group, which didn't forget his vote, has just backed him.
Giffords, the group co-founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and seriously wounded while meeting with constituents in 2011, endorsed Lance and Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., on Friday.
They are only the second and third House Republicans receiving the group's endorsement.
The Arizona Democrat said Lance and Smith "have the courage to stand up to the corporate gun lobby and who will never stop working to make New Jersey communities safer."
The group previously backed three New Jersey Democrats: Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., and challengers Andy Kim in the 3rd District and Mikie Sherrill in the 11th Dist.
Lance moderates record in year of Trump[4]
While Smith is considered a safe bet for re-election, the Cook Political Report says Lance is in a tossup race[5] against former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Tom Malinowski.
"Keeping our children and communities safe is not a partisan issue," Lance said. "I am proud of my bipartisan record of supporting expanded background checks, ending the ban on federal gun violence research and outlawing dangerous bump stocks. I look forward to continue reaching across the aisle and working with groups such as Giffords in the future."
Such provisions, Smith said, "do not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of hunters and sportsmen or the rights of law-abiding citizens to self-defense."
"Gabby Giffords knows personally the horrors that can come from guns falling into the wrong hands, and I thank her and
