On January 8 , 2011 , just a week into her third term , Giffords was a victim of an assassination attempt near Tucson at the hands of gunman Jared Lee Loughner , at a Safeway supermarket where she was meeting publicly with constituents . Loughner shot Giffords in the head with a 33-round-magazine Glock pistol ; he shot twenty-four others , killing six and wounding eighteen , among them federal judge John Roll and a 9-year-old child , Christina-Taylor Green , before Loughner was disarmed , arrested , and charged with murder and attempted murder . Giffords was later brought to a rehabilitation facility in Houston , Texas , where she recovered some of her ability to walk , speak , read , and write
assassination attempt
2011 Tucson shooting
Gabby Giffords