(It has been pointed out that the two videos below are the same clip. They are, indeed. Google's Blogger apparently has some glitch in it that does not allow me to embed two videos that have very similar embed codes; it "auto-corrects". I do not have the time to keep playing with it right now, so I have posted the second clip in a separate post. Thanks.)
Retired Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, have been very visible in the public debate over measures to reduce gun-related violence. However, it was another former Tucson celebrity whose memory was invoked in today's Senate debate over background checks.
Rickey Byrdsong was a well-known University of Arizona basketball assistant coach in the early days of the Lute Olson era. He went on to head coaching stints at Detroit University and Northwestern University. He was in private life in 1999, however, when he was shot and killed as part of a multi-day shooting rampage by a white supremacist.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was speaking on the Senate floor today about the "Toomey-Manchin Gun Control Amendment" when he began speaking about Byrdsong's case.
Durbin later finished his speech by reading a letter he had received this past year from Byrdsong's widow, Sherialyn:
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