January 7, 2013
Giffords meets with Newtown officials to talk gun control
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Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords leaves the Newtown Municipal Building in Newtown, Conn. on Jan. 4. Photo by Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords traveled to Newtown, Conn., to discuss gun control with local and state officials.
Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke with the officials last Friday about such issues as gun control legislation and identifying and treating the mentally ill, according to several news accounts of the 45-minute meeting. They also talked about the many forces in the United States that can desensitize people to violence.
The meeting came just days before the second anniversary of the attack on a constituents' event that critically injured Giffords, who had represented Arizona in the House of Representatives, and killed six people.
Attending the meeting were several Newtown selectmen and officials, as well as newly elected U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, according to USA Today.
Newtown is home to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman last month killed 26 people, including 20 children, before turning the gun on himself. The gunman, Adam Lanza, had killed his mother before the school rampage.
Since Giffords was shot in the head outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery on Jan. 8, 2011, in an attack that left her partially blind with a paralyzed arm and a brain injury, Kelly has been speaking out for gun control. Nineteen people were shot at the Tucson event.
Giffords stepped down from the Congress to continue her rehabilitation.
