Republican Congressman Mocks Gabby Giffords With Gun At Town Hall Meeting

Image by Getty Images
A pro-gun Republican congressman mocked wounded ex-Rep. Gabby Giffords by brandishing a loaded handgun at a meeting with constituents in his South Carolina district — and suggesting she could have done more to protect herself.
Rep. Ralph Norman reportedly pulled out the licensed .38-caliber weapon on a table and suggested that Giffords could have avoided being shot by a crazed stalker if she too had been armed.
“I’m not going to be a Gabby Giffords,” Norman told the Post and Courier of Charleston after the meeting in the town of Rock Hill.
“I’m tired of these liberals jumping on the guns themselves as if they are the cause of the problem,” he added. “Guns are not the problem.”
Giffords, who was nearly killed in the 2011 Tucson shooting attack and has since become an anti-gun violence advocate, quickly hit back through her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly.
“Americans are increasingly faced with a stark choice: leaders like Gabby, who work hard together to find solutions to problems, or extremists like the [National Rifle Association] and Congressman Norman, who rely on intimidation tactics and perpetuating fear,” Kelly said.
The divide over gun control has become especially heated in the weeks since 17 students were killed by an ex-classmate at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Survivors have demanded new laws restricting access to weapons, but gun-rights groups have pushed back hard.
Norman won an unexpectedly narrow victory in a 2017 special election to replace White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney in the deep-red district.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.