truE Grit As she

Words matter

This spring, I sat down with Gabby and Mark in their homey kitchen. Nelson, a former service dog with a fondness for chewing water bottles, settled near us. Like many couples, Mark and Gabby have a sweet shorthand, complete with gentle teasing that makes Gabby smile widely. A conversation with one is a conversation with both, as Mark

make with a single word.

The shooting, which killed six people and injured 13, lef t Gabby paralyzed on the right

mobility. The bigger struggle is

talks about gun violence in the

United States, she reels off nations— “Yemen, Mexico, Iraq, Brazil”—that have death rates from shootings that are thought to be on par with the U.S. Gabby has almost daily speech therapy, and a goal to be able to speak nonstop for 20 minutes. To demonstrate, she gives the first lines of a new speech: “I’m Gabby Giffords and I used to be in Congress. But don’t hold that against me!”

Gabby has traded stumping for very different activities: “Yoga twice a week, French horn, Spanish lessons, riding my bike.” She also spends more time with her husband. Before the shooting, she was commuting between Washing ton, DC, and Tucson, and Mark was based in Houston. Now, they go on drives in the desert, see movies and eat out often. They are both avid cyclers, and are planning to do the 40-mile El Tour de Tucson in November. That morning, Gabby had logged 11 miles on her recumbent bicycle. W hen I ask her why she loves to bike, she responds simply, “Freedom.”

Gabby doesn’t appear to dwell on what could have been—the Senate seat that came open just weeks after her shooting, the children she hoped to have. Her desire to move on even extends to the man who shot her. When Mark asks her if she has forgiven him, she emphatically shakes her head no. “Do you feel like you need to?” he asks gently. Gabby shakes her head again. Says Mark: “If what happened to Gabby happened to me, I would be bitter. I don’t think there are many people who could be as positive about life as she is.”

As Gabby fought to get that life back, she and Mark absorbed the news of the Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012, in which 20 children and six adults were killed. They thought about how they could help protect citizens—as well as the rights of gun owners. Their mission came into focus: The couple founded Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), a nonprofit that fights for stronger gun laws.

helps clarify when speech fails her, which it often does because of her brain injury. But by no means does he speak for her. Gabby can bring Mark back to a point she wants to

side of her body, but a f ter years of intense physical therapy, she has made progress toward greater

with expressing herself: The bullet damaged the part of her brain that controls language. Still, Gabby is clearly bursting with thoughts—her mind outpaces her mouth. As Mark

Women in America are much more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other developed countries.

Gabby and her husband, Mark, at their home (above); the couple married in 2007.

Right now, federal laws prevent convicted of felony or misdemeanor charges from buying firearms from federally licensed dealers. But these same people are allowed to buy them at gun shows or online, no questions big enough to drive a truck through.” recently helped ARS work to defeat a bill in Iowa that would have repealed its background check system. Mark and Gabby’s vision is not about taking guns from peaceable people, he says. “Gabby’s always owned guns; I’ve had a few guns. We both support the Second Amendment. This isn’t about responsible people who own guns. It’s about the irresponsible ones.”

domestic abusers who have been

asked. Mark calls this “a loophole People convicted of misdemeanor stalking may also walk into a store and buy a gun, under federal law.

The solution lies, says ARS, in closing loopholes that enable convicted predators to buy weapons. One idea is to institute background checks at gun shows and other points of purchase. Federal background check laws work: In the last 20 years, the system blocked 2 million store purchases by people who should not own guns, per Bureau of Justice statistics. “If we changed our laws so that dangerous people could no longer get a gun online or at a gun show without a background check, it would save lives,” says Mark.

Gabby in Olympia, WA, in 2014, testifying before a State House panel considering the expansion of background checks.

living responsibly

It may not be a role she chose, but Gabby is a powerful reminder of what guns in the wrong hands can do. She’s brought her perspective to leaders in Delaware and Oregon, and

A nd the couple’s fight for gun safety can get personal. The day before I visited Gabby and Mark, the National Rif le Association posted an article to its Facebook page that referenced Gabby by name. Several commenters posted death threats against her. But the couple shrugs off such ugliness. In the quiet of her kitchen, I ask Gabby how she stays so optimistic about the challenges ahead. With steel in her voice, she says, “Get ’er done.” n

July/August 2015 womansday.com 47

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