It has been a summer of headline-making gun violence. June 14: A gunman assassinates Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home. July 28: A gunman kills four at 345 Park Avenue in New York City. August 27: Two children are shot and killed during a prayer service at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota. And September 10: Political activist Charlie Kirk is murdered at a peaceful event on a college campus in Utah.
Nearly 15 years ago, Gabby Giffords, then a congresswoman representing Arizona’s Eighth District, was on the receiving end of one such shot. At a constituent event she was hosting in front of a Safeway grocery store, a gunman opened fire, killing six people and wounding 13 others, including Giffords, who was shot in the head at close range, just above her eye. She underwent a decompressive craniectomy, where doctors removed part of her skull. Then she spent six months at a rehabilitation center in Houston, relearning how to walk and talk. Doctors said her survival was miraculous.
As a result of her brain injury, she was diagnosed with partial paralysis on her right side and aphasia, a condition that can impact speech and the ability to communicate. “I hope anyone who sees or meets me—or anyone else with aphasia—will recognize that I’m still me,” Giffords tells me over email in an interview for this story. “Even if my words don’t come quite as easily.” After Sandy Hook, in 2013, Giffords and her husband, former astronaut and Arizona senator Mark Kelly, founded Giffords, an organization that seeks to end gun violence in this country.
Their mission is far from over, and I felt it firsthand when I discovered that someone I’ve known since childhood was killed in the August NYC shooting. These horrifying acts feel like a distant, surreal part of the news cycle until they show up on your doorstep. And at this rate, they will eventually hit close to home for us all.
I asked Giffords what she does with her anger around such senseless violence and what her transition back into public life was like after being targeted for simply doing her job. “I won’t live my life in fear,” she says. “I’m alive—I survived an assassination attempt. So I try to take advantage of the time I was given, when so many others ran out of it.”
And she means it. Though Giffords has mobility issues and difficulty communicating with speech, she lives life at the speed of any other influential politician or public servant—traveling around the country; meeting with concerned citizens and lobbying organizations; and doing it all with grace, poise, and energy. When Giffords isn’t advocating for sensible gun laws with her namesake organization, she is doing speech therapy, physical therapy, and attending “lots of doctor’s appointments.” “One of my favorite things to do is take my bike out,” Giffords says, referring to her recumbent trike. “It’s good to feel the wind in my face, especially on a beautiful Arizona day.” She enjoys doing yoga and swimming. In her spare time, she learns the French horn—music is proven to help with recovery after a traumatic brain injury—and takes Spanish lessons. All in a day’s work.
SELF asked Giffords if we could send a photographer to her home in Arizona to capture what her life looks like today, nearly 15 years after the shooting that changed its course. OK McCausland spent two days documenting Giffords and Kelly—attending campaign events, doing therapy, exercising, and, yes, enjoying a wonderful bagel with lox. We asked Giffords to annotate each photo, giving us a look at what balancing public service, recovery, and family life entails.
“One thing I’ve learned since my shooting is the importance of looking forward,” Giffords says. “Candidly, I don’t spend any time thinking about the man who shot me. I am focused on the lives that we can save, the families who can be spared what mine has gone through.”
And she’s not slowing down anytime soon. Within just a few days of Kirk’s fatal shooting, Giffords wrote op-eds for Time and USA Today and made multiple statements condemning the act and mourning for Kirk’s family—no “buts.” “The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a tragic manifestation of the increasing political violence we’ve seen in the past few months and years,” Giffords says in an exclusive statement to SELF. “I am worried about the direction of our country and our national dialogue. At this moment, it’s on all of us to work towards a democracy that ensures we can disagree without the fear of political violence. Our future depends on it.”
Friday, July 11, 2025
Here I am checking out my red Chevy Corvair before I get it out of the garage. I leave it covered because I don’t get to take it out as much, especially in the Arizona summer heat. Bought originally without seatbelts, she reminds me of my roots. Throughout my childhood my dad owned a tire company, El Campo Tires. I eventually moved back to Tucson and took over the family business when my dad needed help.
I regularly meet with Giffords supporters to talk about our perspective, progress, and path to ending the gun violence epidemic. That often involves asking people to chip in financially. That can be hard, but it’s how we were able to build such a great team. I had to fundraise back when I was in Congress too—I even asked my then boyfriend, Mark, to donate to my campaign.
After the shooting, I lost the ability to form words easily, but I didn’t lose my musical abilities—and incidentally, learning to play an instrument, or singing, is actually easier for me than speaking. I first learned to play the French horn when I was 13 years old. After I was shot, I started to learn how to play it again. It requires a lot of practice.
The doctors made a replica of my skull to create the titanium plate that was used to replace the part of my skull that was removed after the shooting due to swelling. I keep it in sight to remind myself of what I have survived.
Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse, PhD, CCC-SLP, is not only my speech therapist but one of my good friends. I’ve been working with her since 2012, through moments big and small, and she has helped me make so much progress. Most of our sessions are filled with laughter.
Saturday, July 12, 2025
My dear friend Adelita Grijalva is running to represent Tucson, our home district, in the US House of Representatives. Mark and I were thrilled to hit the campaign trail with her a few days before her primary. We were joined by Marisol Garcia, President of the Arizona Education Association, who I’m hugging here. Adelita won the primary and is continuing onto the special election in September.
It’s fun to campaign with Mark now. I was always the elected representative in our family, and I’ve enjoyed supporting him as he’s become one. I’m so proud of him. He will joke that if he was the one who got shot, would I have become an astronaut? I always answer yes, of course.
I love dogs, and was happy to see one at Adelita’s event this day. We lost our beloved dog, Nelson, two years ago. Nelson was originally my service dog after I was shot, but as he got older, and I got better, he just became our companion.
After hitting the campaign trail for Adelita, Mark and I came home and decided to have some bagels from our favorite bagel place, Bubbe’s Bagels.
I love fun magnets. Mark puts up with it. My mom is an artist, and any sort of art piece makes me happy. I particularly love the slogan about aphasia pictured here. I wear the same slogan on a bracelet every day. It is really important to me that people know that aphasia is a loss of language, not intellect.
Fun fact: Our first date was visiting death row at Arizona State Prison in Florence. At the time, I was a state senator working on legislation on capital punishment, and I wanted to learn as much about it as possible. I got cold feet and initially canceled the date, but then Mark said he was still going to fly out to Tucson, even if he couldn’t see me. I changed my mind, we went to the visit and then got dinner. I’m very glad I did.
Mark and I are often on the road, so when we’re both home, we spend as much time together as we can. I love to work out with him when I can—we motivate each other and tease each other a lot. My physical recovery has been very hard, and here you can see the brace that helps me move my right leg, which is partially paralyzed.
Gym244 is a local gym in Tucson where I exercise with my trainer, Vanessa. Here, I am warming up doing a banded hip hinge to get my lower body ready to go for my workout. During my workouts, Vanessa and I focus on two main things—the first are ADL exercises (activities of daily living), which keep my muscles strong to tackle everyday things like picking up bags or going up stairs. These are important for anyone to do in the gym. I want to be able to bring groceries inside when I’m 80! The second are exercises that balance the muscles on my right (partially paralyzed) side with the muscles on my left.
In this photo I’m working out my right arm, which is partially paralyzed. After I was shot, I wasn’t able to really move it at all. After years of hard work, I can now lift it up about 6 inches. That might seem minor, but it’s a big deal for me.
My stepdaughter, Claudia, and our granddaughter, Sage, joined us at Mercado San Agustin for lunch. Sage calls me GG! In this moment, she was telling us that she wanted to get in the pool later. She is growing so fast. Mark and I spend a lot of time thinking about what kind of country she will inherit, and fighting to make it the best one possible.
Related:
- ‘I Didn’t Fit the Profile of a Victim’: Megan Thee Stallion on Surviving Gun Violence
- How 10 Parents Talk to Their Kids About Gun Violence
- ‘Devastated and Angered’: Pediatricians Are Fed Up With the Gun Violence Crisis Killing Our Kids
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