Gabrielle Giffords Shooting
Political assassination attempts are something many Americans haven't seen in their lifetime, or imagine only take place in faraway countries with far more corrosive politics. But they received a collective jolt Jan. 8 when Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot, along with 19 others, during a rally outside a Tuscon supermarket. Six people died, though Giffords, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, miraculously clung to life. In the aftermath of the shooting, fingers pointed in all directions: at Giffords' political opponents, at the lax enforcement of the nation's gun laws, even at former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose political action committee had earlier sent out a poster with crosshairs over Giffords' district during a Tea Party-backed attempt to oust her in the 2010 elections. The suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, turned out to be an unhinged loner with severe mental problems; he pled not guilty to 49 charges tied to the shooting and is currently being forcibly medicated in a Missouri prison facility to prepare him for trial. Meanwhile Giffords, who was left with aphasia, a condition which effects speech and communication skills, has made a remarkable recovery; during the house vote on the debt ceiling in August, her surprise return to congress to cast her vote was one of the rare moments of bipartisan celebration in an otherwise polarized year.