U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy is centrally featured in a new Time magazine cover that looks at different points of view on the issue of guns.
In the interactive feature[1] for the Nov. 5 cover story, in which readers can click on each person in a montage of more than 200 people on all sides of the political spectrum, Murphy is pictured at the center near former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, now a gun control advocate, and Giffords’ husband Mark Kelly[2], who spoke at Tuesday’s event with Murphy and former Vice President Joe Biden in Orlando.
“On June 12, 2016, a gunman walked into a nightclub in my community and took the lives of 49 innocent individuals,” Murphy says in the story, referring to the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Her 2016 opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica[3], “took a check from the NRA[4] just two days after that nightclub shooting and I didn’t feel like this represented our community. And so I ran a longshot campaign … to unseat a 24-year Republican incumbent.”
Murphy said she’s sought to get bipartisan support for “common sense” gun control measures, and said she was most proud of her efforts to lift the 22-year ban on federal funding for gun violence research.
“What that means is that we can now collect the facts that we need to address what has become a public health issue affecting so many lives in our communities. I reject the notion that we can’t find common-sense gun safety measures and also protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.
