Giffords to endorse Clinton

Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords will endorse Democratic primary front-runner Hillary Clinton this week, according to multiple reports.

Clinton’s position on gun control reportedly played a major part in the decision for Giffords, who was shot in the head when a gunman opened fire at an Arizona parking lot, killing six, in 2011.

{mosads}She and husband Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut, have been staunch gun control advocates since the shooting, starting the political action committee Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Giffords sat front row at President Obama’s press conference last week in which he expanded background checks and in an effort to close the so-called gun-show loophole.

The former congresswoman and her husband attended several White House meetings to define which businesses are “in the business” of selling guns, which served as the basis for the executive action.

The endorsement comes as Clinton has sought to portray chief Democratic primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as soft on guns, pointing to his 2005 vote that absolved gun manufacturers of legal liability for crimes committed with their products.

“He often says, ‘Well look, I’m from Vermont and oh, it’s different, it’s not like being in New York City,” Clinton said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I think that the excuses and efforts by Senator Sanders to avoid responsibility for this vote — which the NRA hailed as the most important in 20 years — points up a clear difference, and it’s a difference that Democratic voters in our primary can take into account,” she added.

She noted that Sanders’ Vermont colleague, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), voted against the 2005 law.

Sanders has pushed back that he is a staunch gun control advocate, voicing support for Obama’s executive orders.