Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords urged attendees to use their voices to fight against gun violence during her closing remarks at the Community Violence Intervention Conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 21.
“We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue, or we can act,” said Giffords, who survived traumatic head injury from a gunshot wound.
On Jan. 8, 2011, at a “Congress On Your Corner” constituent event in Tucson, Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. The former member of the U.S. House of Representatives stepped down from Congress in Jan. 2012 to focus on her recovery.
“I’ve known the darkest of days,” Gifford said. “But I put one foot in front of the other. I found one word, and then I found another.”
After the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting in 2012, Giffords co-founded the advocacy and research organization now known as GIFFORDS to save lives from gun violence. Over the past several years, the organization has been a leader in the national gun safety movement.
“My recovery is a daily fight but fighting makes me stronger,” said Giffords, an alumna of Claremont’s Scripps College and 2023 Rose Parade grand marshal.
The two-day conference focused on breaking the cycle of gun violence is organized by the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention. Now in its fourth year, the event featured trainings, breakout sessions, workshops, panel discussions, healing exercises, and networking events.
Giffords Center for Violence Intervention describes community violence intervention as “a set of non-punitive, community-led strategies that are designed to interrupt the transmission of violence by engaging those at highest risk through the provision of individually tailored support services.”
Participants included frontline interventionists, community advocates, researchers, technical assistance providers, funders, government officials, policy strategists, and law enforcement allies working in support of non-punitive approaches to community-driven safety, according to the website.
Over 150 members of the audience from across the nation hung onto every word as Giffords’ voice steadily filled the room.
“America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words.”