A framed photograph of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is seen placed at a makeshift memorial set up outside the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. The memorial honors the victims of a January 8, 2011, shooting outside a grocery store that left six dead and wounded Giffords. The congresswoman had been rallying with constituents when a single gunman opened fire on the gathering. Giffords was shot in the head. Three of her staff members were also shot; one died. Federal Judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl were also among those killed in the attack.
The alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was later determined to be insane.
Photo: Eric Thayer/Reuters
Listening Before the Bullets
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords speaks to a man identified as Dr. Gary Thrasher in a 2010 undated handout photo provided by her congressional re-election campaign. Giffords described herself as a "former Republican."
Photo: Reuters
Married, With Ambitions
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is pictured with her husband, NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly, in this November 2007 photograph from their wedding. U.S. President Barack Obama visited wounded Congresswoman Giffords on an emotional trip to Arizona days after she was shot. U.S. political leaders condemned the shooting spree that shocked the country.
Photo: Reuters
The Immediate Aftermath
Law-enforcement personnel work a crime scene where U.S Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with others at a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona, January 8, 2011. Representative Giffords, 40, a Democrat, took office in January 2007, emphasizing issues such as immigration reform, embryonic stem-cell research, alternative energy sources and a higher minimum wage. Giffords was alive but in surgery at a hospital after the shooting.
Photo: Eric Thayer/Reuters
A Federal Offense
FBI agents continue to process the shooting scene in Tucson, Arizona, January 11, 2011. U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was breathing on her own, and doctors were hopeful about her recovery from a head wound suffered in the Arizona shooting spree.
Photo: Rick Wilking/Reuters
Anything Is Possible
Mark Kelly, the husband of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), is seen holding his wife's hand in the congresswoman's hospital room at University Medical Center in this January 9, 2011 photo. Giffords was in critical condition at a Tucson hospital, but was holding her own, responding to simple commands and breathing without the aid of her ventilation tube. Kelly is a NASA astronaut.
Photo: Reuters
Mourning and Hoping
Captain Mark Kelly, (L) husband of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, arrives at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church for the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Green in Tucson, Arizona, January 13, 2011. Green was the youngest victim in the January 8 shooting that left six dead and wounded U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
Photo: Mamta Popat/Reuters
Angel Wings for Judge Roll
Supporters of federal judge John Roll, dressed as angels, are seen outside his funeral mass in Tucson, Arizona, January 14, 2011. A devout Catholic, Roll was also a close friend to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was also shot on January 8, 2011. Roll was shot to death as he dropped by to see her at a constituents' meeting outside a north Tucson grocery store, on his way home from mass.
Photo: Rick Wilking/Reuters
Second Amendment? Absolutely
Ammunition is advertised for sale at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson, Arizona, January 15, 2011. Six people were killed and another 13 injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, after a lone gunman went on a shooting spree outside a grocery store in Tucson on January 8.
Photo: Eric Thayer/Reuters
Petitioning a Higher Power
Orlando Gonzales prays at the University Medical Center, where U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was recovering in Tucson, Arizona, January 17, 2011. Giffords was responding well after a pair of weekend surgeries to remove a breathing tube from her nose and repair her right eye socket, doctors said.
Photo: Eric Thayer/Reuters
The Road to Recovery
A spectator holds a campaign sign as he waits for the medial ambulance transporting U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to leave the University Medical Center en-route to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, January 21, 2011. Giffords was flown to Texas to begin her in-patient rehabilitation, two weeks after she was shot through the head.
Photo: Samantha Sais/Reuters
Gabby in Her First Prime
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona addresses the United States Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 6, 2011. Giffords was shot in the head while holding a public event in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8, 2011. Giffords, 40, a Democrat, is married to U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly.
Photo: Reuters
Lifesavers
Daniel Hernandez (L), the intern credited with saving the life of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in Arizona, is thanked by first responders from the September 11, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center, outside Gifford's office on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 25, 2011. Hernandez was a special guest of first lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters
Flying on Faith
Astronaut Mark Kelly listens to a question at a news conference where it was announced that he will serve as commander of the STS-134 space shuttle mission at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, February 4, 2011. Kelly had been on leave from NASA caring for his wife, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a Tucson, Arizona, shooting.
Photo: Richard Carson/Reuters
Indomitable Mother and Daughter
U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (L) smiles next to her mother, Gloria Giffords, at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, the day after the launch of Endeavour and the day before her cranioplasty, in this May 17, 2011, photo released on her Facebook page June 12, 2011.
Photo: P.K. Weis/Reuters
Back to Work
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) (C) waves to colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives, moments after the House voted to raise the U.S. borrowing limit, in Washington, August 1, 2011. Giffords returned to the House floor for the first time since she was shot in the head in January, receiving a thunderous ovation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Giffords, a Democrat who has not been to Washington since the shooting at a political event in her home state of Arizona, returned to vote in favor of a bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid default.
Photo: Reuters
Spousal Support
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) (seated center) listens as her husband, Captain Mark Kelly, speaks at his retirement ceremony with Vice President Joe Biden in the Secretary of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, October 6, 2011. This marks only the second visit to Washington for Giffords since she was shot through the head in a January 8 shooting spree in Tucson that killed six people and wounded 12 others.
Photo: David Lienemann/Reuters
Dancing On
Captain Mark Kelly hugs his wife, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), after receiving the Legion of Merit from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during Captain Kelly's retirement ceremony in the Secretary of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, October 6, 2011.
