At 10:10 a.m. on Thursday morning, a bell tolled six times as Rev. Joseph Fitzgerald read six names to a small crowd gathered in downtown Tucson.
The moment marked exactly 15 years since the Jan. 8, 2011 mass shooting in a Safeway parking lot in Casas Adobes. Jared Lee Lougner, then 22 years old, had opened fire on a constituent event hosted by then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, hoping to assassinate the congresswoman. He killed six people and injured 13.
Though shot in the head, Giffords survived, and devoted herself to gun violence prevention work. The six people who lost their lives are commemorated by the memorial that served as the backdrop to Thursday’s ceremony.
After the reading of victims’ and survivors’ names, former U.S. Rep. Ron Barber spoke. Barber worked for Giffords at the time of the shooting and succeeded her in Congress after she resigned to focus on her medical recovery.
Barber recounted how Loughner emptied his first magazine in just 19 seconds, but dropped his second, allowing a bystander to grab it. Two others pinned Loughner down as shoppers ran out of the Safeway, including a doctor and nurse who helped treat victims.
Speaking after Barber, Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott noted that the shooting’s setting — a face-to-face with constituents accompanied by minimal security — has become increasingly rare since 2011 as elected officials fear political violence.
In a November interview with NPR, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said members of congress “think about (political violence) a lot more than they used to.”
Kelly is Giffords’ husband and the two appeared together on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday. Giffords reflected on her recovery — which included speech therapy and relearning walking — from the brain injury she received during the shooting.
“Move ahead, do not look back. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what,” she said.
After the 2013 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Giffords co-founded a gun violence prevention nonprofit bearing her name. The organization lobbies for stricter gun control laws across the U.S. — like universal background checks and safe storage laws — and often supports Democratic candidates running for office.
“Fifteen years ago today, a sudden act of gun violence nearly killed me, and it changed my life forever. Every day, I think about Christina-Taylor, Gabe, John, Phyllis, Dorothy, and Dorwan,” Giffords wrote in a statement, listing the names of January 8th victims.
“Gun violence is an American crisis that impacts hundreds of thousands of lives, but we know the solutions. That’s why I will never stop fighting to create a nation where we can all live in freedom and safety,” she wrote.
