AZ-08: Rep. Gabby Giffords Shot by Gunman

UPDATE 3: Huffington Post reports that a surgeon is “very optimistic” on Giffords’ chances of recovery. Sadly, at least one patient taken in from the shooting, a child, has died. Altogether, six people have died, including a Giffords aide.

UPDATE 2: Politico says that Giffords’ office is saying she is not dead.

UPDATE: NPR is now saying Rep. Giffords has died. Several others as well.

My god:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.

Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting her first “Congress on Your Corner” event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least five other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the man ran up firing indiscriminately, and then ran off, Michaels said. According to other witnesses, the was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody.

This is just beyond, beyond, beyond horrible. All I can do is just hope everyone is okay.

445 thoughts on “AZ-08: Rep. Gabby Giffords Shot by Gunman”

  11. Rep. Giffords is my favorite House member.

    I really hope she pulls through. Can’t believe it.

    She was on Palin’s fucking target list. If this has anything to do with that…

  13. here, this was one of the events Jesse Kelly held during the election cycle.



    I’m not speculating just yet, but the Tuscon Citizen report that she was shot in the head at point-blank range makes it sound like this was a targeted assassination attempt.

    Oh God, this is fucking horrible.

  14. Gabby was medi-vaced to University Medical Center. I was at the university around 11am this morning and saw 2 or 3 helicopters flying over to UMC. She was probably on one of them. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

  16. This is horrible. I’m praying for her. She’s one of my favorite members of Congress. This is just horrible, I’m in shock. Please be ok.  

  23. just . . . no. It’s not fair. She was the best House voice regarding NASA and Space. I want to know why this man did it, and anyone who helped incentive this goes with him. This was not a backbencher, this was a great worker. And those Jesse Kelly pics unthread, I hope he’s held accountable and changes his outlook on life.

  24. I still cannot believe this. You know things like this can happen, but it still takes you by surprise when they actually do. That gunman is burn in hell evil.

  27. We were just talking about her as a future senator/presidential candidate earlier today.

    In a New York minute…

  33. I’d caution that these reports could go in either direction for some time yet. Let’s hope for the best and not jump on board with any reports until they’re confirmed.  

  34. Maybe this will bring about more cooperation between the parties.  We literally have people being murdered now.

    This country just got robbed.

  40. Seriously WTF?  It’s so freakin disappointing that crap like this still happens in the U.S.A. in the 21st century.  When was the last time a Representative was assassinated?  

  43. they can’t remove Giffords at the ballot box so they remove her at the bullet box. Wonderful. Our country is seriously fucked if people think the only way to air their grievances is with a gun.  

  44. When Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin, he went on to give a speech with a fresh bullet wound, showed the crowd the wound, and said “It takes more than this to stop a Bull Moose.” Gabrielle Giffords is alive in the hospital. It takes more than an assassin’s bullet to stop a good Democrat, you sorry rat bastards.

  49. According to a Twitter Post the Federal Judge that was shot was John Rolle. From Judgepedia

    http://judgepedia.org/index.ph…


    Judge Roll in 2009, faced death threats after presiding over a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by illegal immigrants against an Arizona rancher. After Judge Roll ruled the case would be certified, threats came from talk-radio shows which fueled controversy and spurred audiences into making threats against the judge[2].

    The threats materialized after one show, Judge Roll’s name logged more than 200 phone calls as some callers threatened the judge and his family[2].

    This resulted in the judge and his wife were under a protection detail for one month as Judge Roll was given twenty four hours a day, seven days a week security by the US Marshals Service. An US Attorney’s investigation ruled that four men were identified as threat makers, but no charges were filed[2].

    In a July 9, 2009 interview with the Arizona Republic, Judge Roll described the time under high security as “unnerving and invasive. . . . By its nature it has to be,” Roll said. Roll also said, “It (the security) was handled very professionally by the Marshals Service.”[2]

    At the end of the month, Roll said four key men had been identified as threat makers[2].

  51. The deputy city manager of Tucson is claiming doctors expect Rep. Giffords to survive. An Arizona state senator has claimed her office has been notified Giffords is out of surgery and is responding to commands, according to Brian Stelter’s Twitter feed.

  54. Thank you all for being her to help me get through this.  Now, I pray from the deepest corners of my heard for the Congresswoman, the deceased, and all of their friends and family.  Gabby’s a fighter, I pray that she pulls through this and is soon rejoined with her kids and husband and all other family ASAP.

  57. My brother came running into my room telling me a congresswoman was shot. It’s all over news here. Just absolute shock. Thoughts and prayers with Giffords and the other victims.

    Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

  63. that if anyone was presumed dead, but survived he/she will live long happy life. That’s exactly what i hope will happen with representative Giffords…))))

  65. Would this be considered a federal crime due to the involvement of a sitting member of Congress, a Congressional aid, and a federal judge as victims?

  68. Remember that Jared Lee Loughner is still alive.  Whatever speculation we can make about this guy, the police can brush aside by questioning Loughner himself.

  69. And I do want to note, of course, that the health of Rep. Giffords and the safety of her family is paramount here – I hope she is able to remain in office and serve out her term.

    People cannot be allowed to think the way to oust politicians whom they couldn’t defeat in regularly scheduled elections is by shooting them. This violent rhetoric has consequences, and it’s the blood in the streets of Tucson today.

    Giffords is one of the best-liked members of Congress among her peers, one of the best members at constituency service, and one of the nicest members according to many accounts. May it continue. Ideas are bulletproof.

  70. When I heard about this, today, and it was assumed she’d already passed I literally nearly became ill.  I’m so sad that I’m sick.  I was just discussing Arizona politics with someone the other day joking about how crazy things have become, down there.

    Whether this turns out to be planned or random, this is a moment to say that words have consequences; words can have serious, serious consequences.  This has got to stop.

  71. happens if she lives but with brain damage? Does she serve out her term? I know some people who sustain gunshots to the head become mentally disabled after. If this was the case I would assume she’d resign or if she wasn’t in the state then she would be removed, see Stenny Hoyer’s predecessor. I pray that shes 100% ok and don’t want to sound negative but it is something to think about. The fact she was communicating while going into the hospital is a great sign.  

  72. I am praying for Gabby and all involved. Today is a terrible day in America. I hope the fucker who did it does not commit suicide. He deserves a much slower painful death. I can’t believe this.

  73. where protesters carried AK-47s to Obama rallies just to prove they could? This is a disgusting culture of violence. Doing harm onto another should never ever be a recourse when you disagree with them. Truly horrible. I hope Giffords pulls through.  

  74. I’ve got to ask the question–what were the networks thinking reporting her as dead? Her poor family and friends, having to see erroneous TV reports for about a half hour that she had died. The reporting on this case could go down in Dewey-Defeats-Truman infamy.

    God bless her. A true miracle, to survive a point-blank shot to the head. He must still have plans for her.

  76. I’ve heard people saying that other people might’ve fired back at Loughner in self defense.  Has anything official been said about that possibility?  What worries me if this is true is that some of the people hurt or killed might actually have been shot by people trying to shoot back at Loughner.

  77. 20 minutes for the Sheriff to arrive on the scene. Don’t know if it’s true, or what it means. Lots of sad explanations can be extrapolated.

  80. For Congresswoman Giffords, her family, and everyone else involved in this, the day is nowhere near over. I imagine “today” won’t be over for a long time. But with the news seeming to have settled, my day is over– I think I’m going to bed really early tonight.

    Thank you, SSP, for being here today. I’m far away from loved ones today and spent a lot of the day basically isolated and alone, following the news. When some of the worst reports were coming in, I was having trouble holding my emotions together, but as crazy as it sounds, reading the comments here helped keep me calm. There’s a lot of warmth and compassion on this website, and it comes through at moments like this. So, thank you, everyone.

    To the victims of today’s events– I’m not one to pray, but you’ll be in my thoughts tonight and in the coming days. I wish there was more I could do.

    I don’t know what kind of political platform could have prevented this, but today is a good reminder that there’s so much that needs to be done to make this a better world. I’m hoping Gabrielle Giffords is able to help us make those changes.

  81. I just woke up a half hour ago, went to check my e-mail, and it’s flooded with CNN Breaking News reports. And the “oh shit” sense went up with each one.

    Several people shot in Tucson, AZ: !

    Giffords among them: !!

    Giffords is dead: !!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Giffords not dead, just in surgery: Phew

    6 people dead: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Giffords out of surgery: Phew

    US District Judge John Roll dead: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    wow. what an awful start to the day. All there is to do now is pray that Giffords and all the other injured people recover.

  82. Medical neuroscience? What are usually the results of events like this? Will Giffords have to function differently because of what the bullet did to her brain? Will there be irreparable damage? What are the chances that she’ll have a full recovery and be able to walk, speak, etc?

  84. My wife ran across the news for the first time earlier this morning on the Yahoo home page as she was getting online to buy birthday party supplies for our kids.  I was stunned then, but the gravity of it didn’t sink in until I got online a short time ago.

    I had no idea the news had previously reported Giffords’ death.  That deserves to live on in infamy in the annals of shoddy journalism, no less than the nets calling Florida for Gore on election night 2000.  But I don’t know if it will.  It’s a big fucking deal to report that, you better be 100% rock-solid correct or else hold back.  It makes me unbelievably angry at the media, even as misplaced as that might seem on a night when the anger should be directed at the people who did this.

    Speaking of which, I haven’t seen anyone here post the news that a second suspect is being sought.  For all I know at this point that could just be yet more misreporting, but if there really was an accomplice, then this was something more than a severely and violently mentally ill man.

    I fear this sort of thing for my family and myself.  I work in a federal building extremly close to the U.S. Capitol.  My kids’ daycare/preschool is in my building, we commute together every workday.  Our house is close to the CIA, although out-of-the-way enough that it would take a big attack to actually threaten our very home.  And the violence I’ve feared for a long time hasn’t been foreign terrorists, it’s domestic terrorists.  There are simply a lot more would-be Timothy McVeighs across America than there are Islamic militants.  And that a 9-year old girl was murdered today only makes it that much more chilling for me, it’s exactly what I fear for my kids, that they somehow get trapped in a horrific event by mere circumstance.

    I’m just heartsick today, for everyone suffering from that attack today, but most acutely that 9-year old girl and her parents more than anyone else.

  85. for the families of the people who died, because, rightly or wrongly, the focus of this is almost entirely on Rep. Giffords; even Judge Roll is at most a sidebar.

    Though, conversely, maybe that gives them some deserved privacy.

  86. Most of the discussion, understandably has been about Rep. Giffords, but we should take a good deal of time to contemplate Judge Roll’s death. According to President Obama, he served four decades practicing law in a variety of capacities and went to the event simply to say hi to the Congresswoman.

    God bless, Judge Roll. Thanks for your public service.

  87. The nine-year-old victim was named Christina Taylor Green.  She was just elected to a student council position, and a friend invited her to the meeting.  There’s another mortifying detail.  Christina was born on September 11, 2001.  In fact, her baby photo was featured in a book called “Faces of Hope” that collected photos of babies born on 9/11.  

  89. If she does recover–and that is a big if–out of this horrible day will come a small ray of hope. Because of all the details of this story, Giffords will stay in the news and her recovery and return to service would be an inspirational story for this country.

  90. This community has been a great a resource today and everyone has been in their highest form. I’m proud to be a member of the Swing State Project community.

    I think I’m still in shock in a lot of ways; I still can’t quite believe that this happened here, where I live, where I grew up, where I was frankly excited to be leaving in just a couple of weeks for a new job. I can’t believe that it happened to her, the first congressional candidate I ever voted for. I know that I saw the medi-vac helicopters as they rushed her and others to UMC–I saw the news footage of them leaving the Safeway so I know that they’re the same ones–but I don’t want to believe that hanging out on Mountain Avenue on the University or Arizona campus at 11am is all it takes to have witnessed that little bit of history.

    There are certainly reasons to be optimistic–the fact that she’s made it this far and is apparently at least responsive a very good sign, and more than the families of the deceased were ever given. But even in the best case scenario, the road in front of her will be extremely difficult. Even just as a constituent, it is immensely heartening to see that people all around the world care so deeply about her well being and recovery. I’m sure that her close friends and family know this as well and that the outpouring of support from SSP and everywhere else is helping them get through this terrible time.

    RIP to all those who passed, and keep all of the victims and families in your thoughts.

  91. There were 20 Congresspersons on Sarah Palin’s “target map.” Two (Snyder and Gordon) retired, one (Mollohan) lost a Democratic primary, and 15 were defeated in the November election. That left two standing – Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Nick Rahall of West Virginia. One of those is in the emergency room with a bullet through the head.  

  93. the dirt bags at the Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket the funerals of the shooting victims. And what’s even more sickening is that they don’t even try to hide their happiness at the thought of innocent people, women and children included being gunned down in open daylight:

    Your federal judge is dead and your (fag-promoting, baby-killing, proud-sinner) Congresswoman fights for her life. God is avenging Himself on this rebellious house! WBC prays for your destruction–more shooters, more dead carcasses piling up, young, old, leader and commoner–all. Your doom is upon you!

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

    If there was ever a reason to repeal the first amendment, these dirt bags would be a shinning reason why….

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