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Two candidates.

One handgun.

Who owns it?

Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords or her Republican challenger Tim Bee, president of the state Senate?

The answer is Giffords, who owns a 9mm Glock — which she says she keeps locked away in her Tucson home.

Bee, father of six young children, doesn't have a gun in his home but says he has a rifle, which he doesn't use, locked away at his parents' house.

Nevertheless, these two candidates — headed into a closely watched campaign — are in a virtual shootout over who is the more gun-friendly.

During his time in the state Senate, Bee has sided with gun-rights measures, including allowing people to carry guns into restaurants and bars. And he has continuously won high marks from the National Rifle Association.

When Giffords served in the Legislature with Bee, she stood on the other side of those same issues. She's favored gun restrictions and limitation on where you can take them. But that's not stopping Giffords from making her own efforts to appeal to gun owners now.

Bee has tapped Sandy Froman, a Tucson attorney and immediate past president of the National Rifle Association, to serve as a campaign co-chair, and rolled out endorsements from Arizona sportsmen and hunting groups.

Giffords, meanwhile, is one of 250 members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down the Washington, D.C., ban on handguns. Her opposition to the ban puts her to the right of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"She owns a gun because she thinks it's the right of all Americans," said Giffords' spokesman C.J. Karamargin. But Karamargin said Giffords also supports "gun-safety legislation" to make sure background checks are conducted on gun buyers.

Giffords is also in the early stages of drafting legislation that would require the U.S. Forest Service to set aside federal land for public shooting ranges. The effort seeks to deal with the issue of populated areas encroaching on traditional target-shooting ranges.

It's an issue that resonates for the 700 members of Tucson Trap and Skeet Club, a shooting facility about 10 miles west of Tucson. Founded in 1948, the facility already moved in the 1970s to avoid urbanization. Now, it's happening again.

"We're back to square one, and for us to move at this point in time would be absolutely cost-prohibitive," said President Lee Bachman.

Bachman said he's talked with the Department of Game and Fish about Giffords' proposal, and it would likely double their 80-acre facility, which borders a large swath of federal land.

Bee, meanwhile, may be tested with some more controversial gun related bills that are flowing around the Legislature this year.

One, introduced by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, would make it legal for people to unholster their guns, and even point them at someone. Another brought forth by Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, would allow firearms on college campuses.

Bee said in a recent interview that he'll wait to take a position on those bills if and when they reach the Senate floor.

"My position on firearms has always been that our Constitution provides us the right to keep and bear arms," he said. "I believe when citizens have firearms and the right to protect and defend their own homes and themselves that they are safer overall."

Despite Giffords' efforts, Todd Rathner, a Bee supporter and current member of the NRA's national board of directors, says she hasn't done enough to win over gun-rights advocates.

"Tim Bee has been a consistent supporter of the Second Amendment throughout his legislative career," Rathner said. "If (Giffords) is taking a more pro-Second Amendment stance than she has in the past, then that's a good thing for gun owners, but her voting record and her public statements in the past have been well below satisfactory."

And Rathner said what matters is not which candidate has a gun at home — it's which candidate supports the NRA's policy positions.

While Giffords is clearly opposed to parts of the NRA's agenda, lately she's also been skeptical of an effort supported by many Democrats to reinstate the assault-weapons ban.

In a statement that Giffords sends to constituents who have contacted her about gun issues, she raises concern about the bill, which would extend the ban for 10 years.

"I am concerned that this legislation may have drawn overly broad restrictions on private sales of legally owned firearms," she says in the statement.

Still, even with all talk about it, the issue of firearms has never been a huge political one in the 8th District, said Republican pollster Margaret Kenski.

"Basically people want the right to own guns, but they expect reasonable restrictions on them," Kenski said. "Right now, the precipitator will be depending on what the Supreme Court does, not that anyone is proposing a ban on gun ownership in Arizona, but it just raises the profile of the issue a bit."