Gabby Giffords

Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control activist.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in California in 1993; and spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico.

She returned to graduate school, earning a Master's degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 1996.

She focused her studies on Mexican-American relations.

Giffords worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City.

In 1996, she became president and CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain of auto service centers founded by her grandfather.

The business was sold to Goodyear Tire in 2000.

At the time of the sale, she commented on the difficulties local businesses face when competing against large national firms.

Giffords switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democratic in 2000 and was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2001.

She served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 until 2003 and the Arizona Senate from 2003 until 2005 when she was elected to the U.S. House.

Since 2001, she has practiced Judaism exclusively and belongs to Congregation Chaverim, a Reform synagogue, in Tucson.

She was elected to the Arizona Senate in the fall of 2002, at the time the youngest woman elected to that body.

She took office in January 2003 and was re-elected in 2004.

She also pushed for bills related to mental health and was named by the Mental Health Association of Arizona as the 2004 Legislator of the Year.

Giffords earned the Sierra Club's Most Valuable Player award.

In the legislature, Giffords worked on the bipartisan Children's Caucus, which sought to improve education and health care for Arizona's children.

Critics of this plan argued that it amounted to taxpayer-funded daycare.

She worked with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to promote all-day kindergarten.

She resigned from the Arizona Senate on December 1, 2005, in preparation for her congressional campaign.

In early 2005, Giffords observed that "the 2004 election took its toll on our bipartisan coalition" and that as a result "a number of significant problems will receive far less attention than they deserve."

She highlighted among these, the lack of high-paying jobs or necessary infrastructure, rapid growth, and inward migration that threatened the environment and "strain[ed] ... education, health care, and transportation", and unresolved problems such as Students First; Arnold v. Sarn; repayments due under Ladewig v. Arizona; the No Child Left Behind mandate; low educational achievement; health care costs; and the demands of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

She said that Arizona was not alone in facing such challenges.

Expanding health care access was an issue pursued by Giffords when she served in the legislature.

She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Arizona's 8th congressional district from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned because of a severe brain injury suffered during an assassination attempt.

A member of the Democratic Party, she was the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Giffords graduated from Scripps College and Cornell University.

After initially moving to New York City, where she worked in regional economic development for Price Waterhouse, she returned to Arizona to work as the CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a family business started by her grandfather.

She had just begun her third term in January 2011 when she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and mass shooting just outside of Tucson during an event with constituents.

Giffords has since recovered much of her ability to walk, speak, read, and write.

She was greeted by a standing ovation upon her return to the House floor in August 2011.

She attended President Obama's State of the Union address on January 24, 2012, and appeared on the floor of the House the following day, at which time she formally submitted her resignation, receiving a standing ovation and accolades from her colleagues and the leadership of the House.

Though a moderate on the issue during her time in Congress, Giffords has since become an ardent advocate for gun control.

In January 2013, she and her husband launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, a non-profit organization and Super-PAC which later joined with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to become Giffords.

She is married to former Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, a United States senator from Arizona.

Gabrielle Dee Giffords was born in and grew up in Tucson, Arizona; her parents were Gloria Kay (née Fraser) and Spencer J. Giffords.

She was raised in a mixed religious environment, as her mother was a Christian Scientist and her father was Jewish.

Her paternal grandfather, Akiba Hornstein, was a Jewish emigrant from Lithuania who changed his name to Giffords to avoid anti-Semitism in the United States.

Through her father, Giffords is a second cousin of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.

Giffords graduated from Tucson's University High School.

She is a former Girl Scout.