Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Gabby Giffords Meets With Newtown Families

Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in her Arizona district two years ago, met with Newtown officials on Friday afternoon before heading to visit with families of the victims of last month’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Giffords arrived at Newtown’s town hall a bit before 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) and met with First Selectman Pat Llodra and School Superintendent Janet Robinson among other officials.

After about 30 minutes, Giffords and a small entourage boarded their vehicles and drove off from the town hall.

On Thursday, Steven Jensen, spokesman for Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, said Giffords planned to attend a private event at a local home on Friday.

Giffords’ visit is three weeks to the day since 20-year-old Adam Lanza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School in rural Newtown, about 70 miles northeast of New York City, and killed 20 first graders and six school staff members.

Before the attack, Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in their home about 5 miles from the school. Lanza took his own life as police arrived at the Sandy Hook school.

Giffords retired from Congress last year to focus on her recovery from the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that left six dead and 12 others wounded.

Giffords, shot in the head in the attack, has become a symbol for proponents of stricter gun control in the national debate about the right to bear arms, which has grown louder since the Dec. 14 attack in Newtown.

On Thursday, the more than 400 children who escaped without physical harm returned to school for the first time since the assault. (Writing by Dan Burns; editing by Claudia Parsons)

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.