Gabrielle Giffords to speak at Senate hearing on gun violence
Last edited Wed Jan 30, 2013, 11:41 AM - Edit history (2)
Source: Washington Post
Gabrielle Giffords to speak at Senate hearing on gun violence
By Ed O’Keefe and Sari Horwitz, Wednesday, January 30, 2:33 AM
Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) is expected to give an opening statement Wednesday at a Senate hearing on gun violence, lending the emotional resonance of her experience with the issue to what had already promised to be a dramatic exchange between lawmakers and advocates for and against stricter gun-control laws.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing on gun-related violence in 14 months on Wednesday morning, and observers expect that it will help set the tone for congressional debates over legislation introduced in the wake of the deadly shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 people, including 20 young children.
Giffords was shot in January 2011 at point-blank range at an event in Tucson and suffered brain damage. She is expected to give her statement alone at a witness table and take no questions from senators, according to a person familiar with her plans who was not authorized to talk publicly about them and spoke on the condition of anonymity. After Giffords leaves, five other invited witnesses — including Giffords’s husband, Mark Kelly — are expected to testify.
Giffords and Kelly are gun owners and support the Second Amendment, but this month they launched their own political group to take on the National Rifle Association and push for a new assault-weapons ban, universal background checks to close the “gun-show loophole,” and a ban on high-capacity magazines like the one used to kill six people and wound Giffords and 13 others in the Tucson shooting.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gabrielle-giffords-to-testify-at-senate-hearing-on-gun-violence/2013/01/29/ffba6a30-6a61-11e2-95b3-272d604a10a3_story.html?wprss=rss_politics
UPDATE:
Giffords To Lawmakers: ‘Americans Are Counting On You’
"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."
MORE:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/giffords-to-lawmakers-americans-are-counting-on-you?ref=fpa
= new reply since forum marked as read
... god love her... Had that happened to me, I would have given up, period. But not Gabby.
I salute that sweet little lady. 
