Tucson remembers Giffords shooting with services
Source: Associated Press
Tucson remembers Giffords shooting with services
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press | January 7, 2014 | Updated: January 8, 2014 12:54am
PHOENIX (AP) — The three-year anniversary of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords will be marked Wednesday with bell-ringing, flag-raising and other ceremonies, providing a moment of reflection for the former congresswoman and an opportunity to look ahead to her efforts to remake the gun debate in America.
In the three years since she was shot in the head at a political event in Tucson, Giffords still struggles to speak and walk, but has become a leader of Americans for Responsible Solutions, a national organization she founded with her husband, Mark Kelly, to rival the powerful pro-gun lobby.
The group struggled to bring about any major change at the federal and state level in its first year of existence, but the couple is confident they laid the groundwork for success in future election cycles.
"The legacy of any day where there's a mass shooting and loss of life is, I think, a chance to reflect on who these people were and what they did, particularly the people who died," Kelly, a former astronaut, said in an interview with The Associated Press on the eve of the anniversary. "But it's also a chance to look forward and see how we can make changes and reduce the numbers of instances like this that we have."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Tucson-remembers-Giffords-shooting-with-services-5123078.php?cmpid=hpbn