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Gabrielle Dee Giffords is an American politician from Arizona and a gun control advocate. As a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, she represented Arizona's 8th congressional district from January 3, 2007, until her resignation on January 25, 2012, after surviving an assassination attempt that left her with a severe brain injury. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Considered a "Blue Dog" Democrat, her focus on health care reform and illegal immigration were sources of attention for those opposed to her candidacy and made her a recipient of criticism from various liberal groups.

Giffords is a native of Tucson, Arizona, and a graduate of Scripps College and Cornell University. Prior to her election to the United States Congress, Giffords served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 until 2003 and the Arizona State Senate from 2003 until 2005, when she resigned to run for the house seat held by then-Congressman Jim Kolbe. She also worked as an associate for regional economic development for Price Waterhouse in New York City, and as CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local automotive chain owned by her grandfather. She is married to former astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander Mark E. Kelly.

On January 8, 2011, just a week into her third term, Giffords was a victim of an assassination attempt near Tucson at the hands of gunman Jared Lee Loughner, at a Safeway supermarket where she was meeting publicly with constituents. Loughner shot Giffords in the head with a thirty-three round magazine Glock pistol; he shot twenty-four others, killing six and wounding eighteen, among them federal judge John Roll and a 9-year-old child, Christina-Taylor Green, before Loughner was disarmed, arrested, and charged with murder and attempted murder. Giffords was later brought to a rehabilitation facility in Houston, Texas, where she recovered some of her ability to walk, speak, read, and write.

On May 16, 2011, Giffords traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of STS-134, the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was commanded by her husband Mark Kelly.

In 2012, Loughner was sentenced to serve seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

On August 1, 2011, Giffords returned to the House floor to vote and was greeted with a standing ovation. On January 22, 2012, Giffords announced her resignation from her congressional seat in order to concentrate on recovering from her wounds, but promised to return to public service in the future. She attended President Obama's State of the Union address on January 24, and appeared on the floor of the House on January 25, 2012, where she formally submitted her resignation to a standing ovation and accolades from her colleagues and the leadership of the House.

✵ 8. June 1970
Gabrielle Giffords photo
Gabrielle Giffords: 9 quotes0 likes

Famous Gabrielle Giffords Quotes

“Our country must be strong enough to solve problems, and that means we must learn how to work together again.”

Gabrielle Giffords

Comment after winning re-election — [Giffords wins re-election to U.S. House; Kelly says voters have spoken, Sierra Vista Herald, Arizona, November 6, 2010, Bill Hess]

“We're in Sarah Palin's 'targeted' list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there are consequences to that action.”

Gabrielle Giffords

After experiencing vandalism directed at her congressional office in 2010 — The Guardian, US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot as six die in Arizona massacre, Ben Quinn and Paul Gallagher, January 9, 2011, Guardian News and Media Limited, 2010-01-10 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/08/gabrielle-giffords-shot-tucson-arizona,

“Our office corner has really become an area where the Tea party movement congregates and the rhetoric is really heated. Not just the calls but the e-mails, the slurs.”

Gabrielle Giffords

Comment following a window being smashed at her congressional office in Arizona &mdash National Post, Shooting could subdue overheated U.S. political rhetoric, Richard Cowan, Reuters, January 9, 2011, 2011-01-10 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Shooting+could+subdue+overheated+political+rhetoric/4082898/story.html, alternate link http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7083G120110110

“It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I got to see firsthand the sacrifices that Israelis make in the name of security because of the dangerous state of affairs there. I will always be a strong supporter of Israel.”

Gabrielle Giffords

Of her first visit to Jerusalem Israel National News 1/8/2011 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141607#.UWvtlaLvuvU

“My position is to listen to my constituents, learn from the best information available and ultimately make sound, rational decisions that are going to be beneficial to the people of the 8th Congressional District.”

Gabrielle Giffords

On her political positions during campaign — [Stephanie Innes, Giffords: Too soon to settle on a plan for health care, The Arizona Daily Star, August 11, 2009, A1, Arizona]

“Senators say they fear the N. R. A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them. On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.”

Gabrielle Giffords

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip, The New York Times, 2013-04-18, April 17, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html?hp&_r=0,

“In the years that some of my colleagues have served — 20, 30 years — they’ve never seen it like this.”

Gabrielle Giffords

Discussing being "targeted" by Sarah Palin, in March 2010 interview with MSNBC — Newsweek, Can Obama Turn Tragedy Into Triumph?, Jonathan Alter, January 10, 2011, 2011-01-10, Harman Newsweek LLC http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/10/the-impact-on-obama-s-presidency.html,

“But the safety of the world, in some sense, depends on your saying "no" to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.”

Gabrielle Giffords

Commencement address, Scripps College, 2009 — http://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/commencement/gabrielle-giffords.php

“This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list. Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.”

Gabrielle Giffords

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip, The New York Times, 2013-04-18, April 17, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html?hp&_r=0,

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