Newly elected US representatives — including Giffords, second from top right — prepare for a freshman class picture on the House steps in 2006. Giffords, a Democrat, represented Arizona's 8th District from 2007 until her resignation in 2012.
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Giffords gives a tour of the US Capitol's Statuary Hall in 2008. Joining her are Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, left, and her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. Kelly has since become a US senator.
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Giffords addresses supporters in Tucson, Arizona, after winning reelection in 2010.
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A framed photograph of Giffords is seen among candles as a vigil is held outside a hospital in Tucson on January 8, 2011. Giffords was shot that day as she was meeting with constituents in front of a grocery store. Six people were killed. The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2012.
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Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, holds his wife's hand in her hospital room on January 9, 2011.
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Giffords is pictured the day before she underwent skull surgery in Houston in May 2011. It was one of the first photographs of her released after the shooting.
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Kelly hugs his wife after he received the Legion of Merit from Vice President Joe Biden, left, during his retirement ceremony in Washington, DC, in October 2011.
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Giffords leads the Pledge of Allegiance during a vigil held on the one-year anniversary of the shooting.
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President Barack Obama embraces Giffords before his State of the Union address in January 2012.
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Giffords resigned from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.
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Giffords, Kelly and then-Vice President Joe Biden watch Obama sign the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act in February 2012. The bill was the last piece of legislation Giffords voted on before she resigned.
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Giffords and Kelly speak at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual tribute dinner, where they received Medals of Valor in May 2012.
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US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee, joins Giffords on stage at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012.
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Giffords and Kelly arrive for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about gun control in January 2013. The former congresswoman delivered an opening statement to the committee, which was meeting for the first time since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
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Giffords and Kelly attend a March 2013 news conference in Tucson that urged Congress to provide stricter gun control in the United States. At left, Roxanna Green holds a photo of her daughter, Christina Taylor Green, who was killed in the 2011 shooting.
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Giffords attends a dedication ceremony in April 2013 at the US Capitol Visitor Center in Washington D.C. A meeting room was named for Gabriel Zimmerman, a member of Giffords' staff who was murdered in the 2011 shooting.
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Jill Biden, wife of Biden, smashes a champagne bottle on the bow of a US Navy vessel that was being named in Giffords' honor in June 2015. Giffords and Kelly are on the right.
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Giffords rides in a charity bike race in Tucson in November 2015.
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Giffords joins Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a Women for Hillary event in New York City, one day before the New York primary in 2016.
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Giffords attends New York University's commencement ceremonies in 2017.
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Giffords watches US Rep. Mike Thompson sign a 2019 bill that would expand background checks for sales of firearms. It did not make it through the Senate.
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Giffords and Kelly attend the Tucson premiere of the film "Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down" in July 2022.
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President Biden awards Giffords with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2022.
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Giffords is joined by Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, left, as they arrive at a restaurant in Miami in September 2022. State Democratic officials joined Giffords as she continued a bus tour against gun violence.
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