Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords went skydiving in Arizona to commemorate the third anniversary of the failed assassination attempt on her life in 2011.
On Jan. 8, 2011, a lone gunman shot Giffords in the head at point blank range. After shooting Giffords, he indiscriminately fired all 32 rounds from his Glock 19 into the crowd, wounding 18 others and killing six. But as her way of saying “I’m alive,” Giffords celebrated the third anniversary of the shooting that nearly took her life by jumping out of an airplane, Today reports.
Giffords with husband and former astronaut Mark Kelley, just moments before she boards the plane.
Giffords skydived for the first time in 2009 with friend and former Navy SEAL Jimmy Hatch, who wasn’t at all surprised she chose to do it again.
“I think her spirit is incredible and that you can see it, in spite of the way she can communicate now,” Hatch said. “And I think it’s a limitation on us that we can’t really grasp it. It’s not really her limitation.”
Vice President Joe Biden called Giffords and gave her a few encouraging words just moments before she boarded the plane.
“I tell you what. You’ve got more spunk, as my mother would say, than the 10 best people I know,” Biden said over the phone.
Giffords landed safely, saying it was “good stuff.”
[ Today ]
The post Gabby Giffords skydives to commemorate third anniversary of Tucson shooting (VIDEO) appeared first on Guns.com.