"My recovery is a daily fight, but fighting makes me stronger," said Giffords, who can utter short sentences, during a speech at the First Baptist Church. "Today I struggle to speak, but I have not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out."
The goal of the tour is to "turn pain into action," according to GIFFORDS, the nonprofit started by the onetime U.S. representative to advocate for gun reform and support survivors.
During an all-day training on this first day of the tour, therapists talked about mindfulness and dealing with trauma with the help of a gun-violence survivors' toolkit created by Survivors Empowered. The second part of the day saw activists talking about how survivors can tell their stories effectively, and the kind of civic actions they can take.
Giffords ended the day with a speech, during which she asked survivors to "please join us in this fight."
"We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue, or we can act," she said. "We can vote. We can be on the right side of history."
Giffords spoke alongside Sandy Phillips, who founded Survivors Empowered after her 24-year-old daughter, Jessi Redfield Ghawi, was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting.
"We've been wanting to do this training because we know the trauma that survivors experience," Phillips says. "We want to get them ways to deal with their trauma and move forward not only in a restorative way, but if they want to get involved in activism or advocacy that's needed there for survivors."
Beka Venturella, who is running for an at-large seat on the Longmont City Council, attended the training; her cousin died in the February Michigan State University shooting alongside three others; the perpetrator is in prison.
She said she appreciated "coming to something like this as a survivor and knowing you're in a safe place and they have therapists here — people who could sit with you when you're triggered.
"When you have survivors leading something, it's just so different," she added. "They look from the perspective of a survivor versus just being like, 'Hey, how can we use you to highlight our agenda?'"
Giffords "actually takes care of us," she said, "and wants to put on an event like this so we don't run through the mill out in the public. It's incredible."
"We've been wanting to do this training because we know the trauma that survivors experience," Phillips says. "We want to get them ways to deal with their trauma and move forward not only in a restorative way, but if they want to get involved in activism or advocacy that's needed there for survivors."
Earlier this year, the Colorado Legislature passed "Jessi's Law," named after Phillips's daughter. The law allows people to sue gun and ammo manufacturers in Colorado. Phillips and her husband went bankrupt after losing a lawsuit against firearm dealer Lucky Gunner and being ordered to pay $200,000 in legal fees.
Beka Venturella, who is running for an at-large seat on the Longmont City Council, attended the training; her cousin died in the February Michigan State University shooting alongside three others; the perpetrator is in prison.
She said she appreciated "coming to something like this as a survivor and knowing you're in a safe place and they have therapists here — people who could sit with you when you're triggered.
"When you have survivors leading something, it's just so different," she added. "They look from the perspective of a survivor versus just being like, 'Hey, how can we use you to highlight our agenda?'"
Giffords "actually takes care of us," she said, "and wants to put on an event like this so we don't run through the mill out in the public. It's incredible."
The survivors' toolkit offers advice on talking with the media, dealing with strangers who send "thoughts and prayers," coming face-to-face with the shooters who killed loved ones in court, and handling trauma.
The toolkit warns survivors and victims to be cautious about "fundraising scams and disputes." Club Q survivors have reported problems dealing with the Colorado Healing Fund, an organization set up to support the state's gun-violence survivors.
"There’s the question of how the money that’s been raised is distributed and to whom — there are no clear guidelines, and it can quickly turn into a legal problem," according to the toolkit. "One way to minimize scams is to take the lead in starting your own fundraiser, and use media and social media to direct well-wishers to your campaign."
Phillips says that the toolkit, issued last year, was created "knowing survivors want to be able to have an outlet and also want to take care of themselves but not knowing how to do that." She and her husband started working on the toolkit and the accompanying training twelve years ago, after their daughter was killed.
Giffords was targeted during a 2011 constituents' meeting in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson. She and fourteen others were injured; six people died, including a federal judge and a congressional staffer.
In 2012, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, the former politician and her husband, Mark Kelly, now a U.S. senator for Arizona (today he sits to the right of John Hickenlooper in the Senate chambers) founded GIFFORDS. The nonprofit generates around $8 million a year in grants and contributions.
Colorado has experienced several mass shootings, most notably the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, the Aurora theater shootings eleven years ago, the Boulder King Soopers shootings in 2021 and the shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs last year.
A mass shooting is generally defined as an incident where multiple people are injured with a firearm. Colorado has had seven mass shootings in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive nonprofit.
So far this year, Colorado's most violent mass shooting came after the Denver Nuggets championship celebration on June 13, which injured ten. In 2023, Denver has experienced three mass shootings, Pueblo two and Colorado Springs one. The deadliest incident was in Peyton on February 5, when two teens died and three people were injured in a shooting related to a carjacking.
Giffords was targeted during a 2011 constituents' meeting in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson. She and fourteen others were injured; six people died, including a federal judge and a congressional staffer.
In 2012, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, the former politician and her husband, Mark Kelly, now a U.S. senator for Arizona (today he sits to the right of John Hickenlooper in the Senate chambers) founded GIFFORDS. The nonprofit generates around $8 million a year in grants and contributions.
Colorado has experienced several mass shootings, most notably the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, the Aurora theater shootings eleven years ago, the Boulder King Soopers shootings in 2021 and the shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs last year.
A mass shooting is generally defined as an incident where multiple people are injured with a firearm. Colorado has had seven mass shootings in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive nonprofit.
So far this year, Colorado's most violent mass shooting came after the Denver Nuggets championship celebration on June 13, which injured ten. In 2023, Denver has experienced three mass shootings, Pueblo two and Colorado Springs one. The deadliest incident was in Peyton on February 5, when two teens died and three people were injured in a shooting related to a carjacking.
"The fight to stop gun violence — it's also a fight forged by tragedy and pain," Giffords said in Denver. "A fight where hard work pays off, a fight that can change lives."
