Gabby Giffords: America Needs To Acknowledge It Has A Gun Violence Problem

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) called for Americans to acknowledge the country’s “deadly problem” of gun violence a day after a man opened fire on Republican congressmen.

In an op-ed published on Thursday by The Washington Post, Giffords said Americans “should emulate the courage of the Capitol Police” and officers who responded to the violence at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

Giffords said there’s not one law that can prevent gun violence, but Americans can make progress by acknowledging that it’s a problem.

“[W]e must acknowledge that a deadly problem like this brings a responsibility to find solutions,” Giffords wrote. “And that’s where we, as a nation, will need courage in abundance, as my former colleagues find the strength to recover from their wounds — and the bravery to try to make shootings like this one less likely in the future.”

Giffords was shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson in 2011. In the years following the shooting, she and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, have fought for gun control legislation.

Giffords first called Wednesday’s shooting “an attack on all who serve and on all who participate in our democracy.”

Read Giffords’ op-ed here.