FOXNews.com: Kelly warns Republicans about blocking a Senate debate, vote on gun control legislation

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Kelly warns Republicans about blocking a Senate debate, vote on gun control legislation Mar 31st 2013, 14:18 File: June 19, 2010: Assorted shotguns are displayed on a table at a gun and knife show in White Plains, N.Y.,AP Leading gun-control advocate Mark Kelly warned Republican senators Sunday that trying to block a vote on new firearms legislation that includes universal background checks could hurt their re-election efforts. Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, directed his remarks to Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, among five Republican senators who have suggested they will filibuster a debate and full floor vote. "They should listen to their constituents" and not get in the way of the debate, Kelly told "Fox News Sunday." Kelly, who with wife and retired Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords leads the gun-control advocacy group Americans for Responsible solutions, said at least 80 percent of voters in Paul and Rubio's districts favor universal background checks for potential gun buyers. Giffords was shot in the head by Jared Lee Loughner, a mentally ill young man, in January 2011 during a town hall-style meeting outside Tucson, Ariz. Congress returns April 8 from spring break. No vote on the legislation has been scheduled. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the legislation will include the background check but no bans on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity gun magazines. Sens. Ted Cruz, Texas; Mike Lee, Utah; and James Inhofe, Oklahoma, are the three others who have vowed to join in the filibuster. "We, the undersigned, intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people's constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance," they said in a March 22 letter to Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Meanwhile, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is crafting a Republican alternative to the one recently passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, his office said Thursday. No details have been released, but the bill is expected to include tougher laws on straw purchases and illegal gun trafficking, efforts to increase school safety and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. A new CBS poll shows 47 percent of Americans now support tougher gun laws, compared to 57 percent after the December 2012 shooting massacre at a Connecticut elementary school in which 20 first-graders and six adults were killed. Kelly called the potential Grassley bill a "mistake" because it doesn't include the background check and disagreed with the argument it will lead to a federal registry and possible gun confiscation.   However, he agreed with the argument that states a need to pass along to the federal government information about mentally ill people. "They absolutely have a point," Kelly told Fox.

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