Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords (8 June 1970-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-AZ 8) from 3 January 2007 to 25 January 2012, succeeding Jim Kolbe and preceding Ron Barber.
Biography[]
Gabrielle Dee Giffords was born in Tucson, Arizona on 8 June 1970, and she worked for Price Waterhouse in New York City before returning to Arizona as CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, her family business. She served as a Democratic state representative from 2001 to 2003 and as a State Senator from 2003 to 2005, when she was elected to the US House of Representatives. She married astronaut Mark Kelly in 2007, but they had a long-distance relationship due to his career with NASA. On 8 January 2011, she was a victim of an assassination attempt by far-right and anti-government gunman Jared Lee Loughner, with six people being killed; Giffords herself was shot in the head and was in critical condition for months. She eventually regained her ability to walk, speak, read, and write, and she was greeted by a standing ovation on her return to the House in August 2011. On 25 January 2012, she announced her resignation before the US Congress, and she was again met with a standing ovation. Giffords - once a moderate on the issue of gun rights - became a gun control activist after her shooting, founding the "Giffords" advocacy and research organization.