Mary Reed recalls her childhood in Houston, Texas, where gun racks in pickup trucks were commonplace.
Growing up, she said, she never thought much about gun laws. Firearms were an omnipresent part of her environment.
“If you couldn't walk in high heels and field-strip a firearm, they didn’t let you graduate high school,” she joked.
Today, Reed’s thoughts about gun laws — and the effects of gun violence — are constant, she said. While Reed continues to own and shoot guns, she lives with chronic pain and neuropathy from a nearly 15-year-old injury.
On Jan. 8, 2011, Reed and her family went to meet then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway in the Tucson area during a “Congress on Your Corner” event.
Giffords regularly held public meet-and-greet events to hear from constituents. Reed’s daughter had previously worked as a page for Giffords in 2010 but had not been able to get a photo with the congresswoman.
Hoping to change that, Reed and her daughter stood in line while her husband and son walked to a nearby Walgreens.
That morning, a gunman opened fire on the crowd outside the Safeway in Casas Adobes, in the Tucson area.
The gunman shot Giffords in the head at point-blank range, critically wounding her, before shooting 18 others. Six people were killed.
VIDEO: AZPM NewsReed was the last person shot before the gunman attempted to reload his Glock 19 9mm pistol. Bystanders tackled and disarmed him, according to court records and witness statements.
“I saw, in my children's eyes, the loss of their childhood,” Reed said. “That day — I can point to that minute — where my daughter was pulling pieces of other people out of her long blonde hair, and my son was holding bloody rags on my wounds.”
A bullet remains lodged in Reed’s L1 vertebrae. She has since become a vocal advocate against gun violence.
“I determined that day that there was no way I wanted anyone to join the survivors of gun violence club — the secret club you're put into after such an incident,” Reed said.
‘Survivors who want to share their story’
After months of physical recovery and court appearances following the 2011 shooting, Reed began an advocacy journey that has now spanned nearly 14 years.
“I discovered that there are a lot of survivors who want to share their story but just couldn't,” she said. “They were overwhelmed by the emotion of their story and couldn't get enough of it out to make an impact on our elected officials.”
Her work evolved from personal storytelling into training other survivors to speak publicly.
Reed joined the staff of TEDxTucson in 2013, where she scouted speakers and trained them to tell their stories — whether to audiences or to lawmakers.
“I am concerned that elected officials have very closed minds when it comes to gun violence prevention and that by speaking directly with a survivor, we might be able to open their heart just a little bit,” she said.
But Reed said advocacy efforts in Arizona often face resistance.
“There are state officials who will not make appointments with us and will actively avoid us so that they don't have to discuss the topic at all,” she said.
Under federal law, gun buyers purchasing from licensed dealers must pass a background check through the FBI system.
Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the Jan. 8 attack, legally purchased the handgun used in the shooting from a federally licensed gun dealer in Tucson about six weeks earlier.
Because the sale went through a licensed dealer, Loughner underwent a federal background check and passed it. At the time, there was no legal basis to deny the sale. He had no felony convictions and had not been legally adjudicated mentally incompetent, the federal standard for prohibition.
Many firearms, however, are sold without a federal license.
Private, person-to-person sales do not require a background check under Arizona law. Buyers do not need a permit, and there is no waiting period.
Bills proposing stricter gun laws — including safe storage requirements or expanded background checks — are unlikely to advance in the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature.
One such proposal, Christian’s Law, was named after 15-year-old Christian Petillo, who was accidentally shot and killed at a sleepover in 2021. The bill would have created a civil fine for parents who fail to safely store firearms in homes with children.
Measures like Christian’s Law typically die in committee, limiting public debate and preventing lawmakers from voting on them.
“I’m a gun owner. I understand that people want to own and shoot guns, as do I,” Reed said. “Having a community safe from gun violence is not a political point of view.”
Her frustration with state officials eventually led Reed to pivot toward recruiting candidates already open to discussing gun violence prevention.
In 2025, she shifted her focus to working with Everytown for Gun Safety’s “Demand a Seat” program, which trains survivors and advocates to run for office or work on campaigns.
Across the country, more than 600 volunteers have been elected to school boards, city councils, state legislatures and Congress since the program’s launch in 2021. In November, former Moms Demand Action Volunteer Abigail Spanberger was elected governor of Virginia.
At least eight elected officials in Arizona have participated in the program, including state representatives Nancy Gutierrez and Aaron Márquez.
“The mama bears in this world need to step up and run for office because their children may be affected by this very real epidemic,” she said.
Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children in Arizona.
Overall firearm deaths in the state increased by about 29% from 2019 to 2023, according to CDC WONDER data, including homicides, suicides and accidental shootings.
Reed said the trauma remains close, especially when she sees headlines about the latest shootings. “Each and every day, it's like this horrible drumbeat that I wake up to,” she said.
She leans on her family and community for support, and says working with young people and potential candidates gives her the motivation to continue.
“I do this advocacy as a letter of apology to all of those children who have been affected by gun violence,” Reed said. “It is my love letter to them.”
