With the recent hype of the London Olympics, US Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords hasn’t been making the headlines like before. Having spent the last year recovering from a shot to the head at a “Congress at Your Corner” event in Tucson, Ariz., Giffords has announced that she is ready to return to her hometown.
Gabrielle Giffords has served as a representative of Arizona’s 8th congressional district since 2007. Giffords launched her candidacy for the US Congress in 2006, and received a strong backing from prominent politicians including Robert Reich and Bill Clinton. She resigned from office following the shooting earlier this year.
“Moving back to Tucson today,” her husband, Mark Kelly, released via Twitter. “Gabby has been waiting for this day a long time.”
Records show that Giffords and her husband have purchased a 10-room single family residence in central Tucson. The property sold for $1.5 million.
Kelly told Arizona Daily Star reporters that Giffords had been talking about returning home ever since the first few weeks after the shooting.
“You know, it’s time to get back as much of a normal life as possible after this type of catastrophic injury,” said Kelly during an interview with the Daily Star. “Obviously a big thing for her is to come home.”
Kelly has shared that Giffords has some things that she will be involved in Tucson, but refused to go into any detail. When ABC reporters asked whether Giffords would be willing to make speeches or do interviews in the future, Kelly said he was confident that she would.
“She does continue to get better, and I think she will for years and years,” said Kelly. “I have heard anecdotally from other people who have had these kind of injuries, [that] if you remain focused and do the hard work, you will keep improving.”
The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, pleaded guilty to 19 charges and will be sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole. Questions regarding the mental stability of Loughner had initially clouded his conviction, but his right to plead his case on the account that he had been insane at the time of the shooting was waived.
