Michelle Rogers and Megan Finnerty, USA TODAY Network
As 2020 ends, Americans crave hope and inspiration in our communities. And as 2021 begins, we seek to find resiliency and fortitude in ourselves.
It is a good time to learn from people who have faced hardship, who have persevered in spite of daunting odds and excruciating losses.
So on Jan. 7, USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star held an event marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting that killed six and injured 13, including former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, at a supermarket north of Tucson, Ariz., during a constituent meeting.
4:50 pm UTC Jan. 8, 2021
Unbidden, Gabby Giffords broke into song. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, she began in a clear voice, a broad smile on her face. It is a favorite hymn, one she was shown playing on her French horn in a clip at the Democratic National Convention last summer. That saved a wretch like me.
The former Arizona congresswoman had been talking to USA TODAY about the difficult, momentous year of pandemic and politics, one that ended with the election of her husband, Mark Kelly, to the U.S. Senate seat once held by John McCain.
But she was also talking about the difficult, momentous decade since she was grievously wounded by a gunman at a listening session she was holding outside a Tucson Safeway. On that Saturday morning, six others who had gathered to see her were killed. Their assailant would be sentenced to life in prison.
let s listen to patricia maisch, at the shooting of gabby giffords and how she and others stopped the shooter because he ran out of ammunition and had to reload. let s listen to her. he pulled out a magazine from his left pocket, had it in his hand, but he dropped it on the sidewalk, i was able to recover it before he could get it. ryan grim, it doesn t seem complicated. it is about how often do they have to reload. right. and there s nothing in the second amendment that says you re entitled to 50 bullets in a clip. right. patricia is the same woman that yelled shame on you from the floors. a well earned right to heckle in the united states senate. i interviewed her afterwards,
be stopped by a background check. it certainly will stop some and if you re the one that s going to get the call or prevent from getting the call saying your 9-year-old daughter is at umc and you need to get there right away because she s been murdered, you know, that is powerful. that s powerful. and i used to think the worst thing i could imagine was roxanna and john green holding the lifeless body of their 9-year-old. but there s something worse and those not being able to hold the lifeless body of your child. and that s what the newtown people had to experience. and i think our senators and our representatives need to take a serious look at how damaging gun violence is. in the body and in the mind. it s just unacceptable. we re a smart people, we should be able to do something about this. tucson shooting survivor, gun reform advocate, patricia maisch. thank you. thank you, thomas. we asked and you answered
not ever. there will be a plan introduced to the senate that he believes will pass. joining me now, a survivor of the tucson mass shooting. patricia, good to see you this morning. as we have all seen from last week, you chastised congress publicly after the senate bill crashed. you yelled shame on you after the vice president read the vote. do you have anymore hope that gun control measures will be revived through other avenues? i do hope they will be. i think they will. we re not going to let this issue drop. the nra can give up on thinking we re going to go away because we re not. we re going to be there fighting the fight until we win. when we look at what people are writing about. a piece in the new york times going after the president saying he handled this incorrectly. he doesn t know how to work the system. it s clear now that he doesn t want to learn. it s unbelievable that with 90% of americans on his side he