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Gabby & NRA boss in Senate shootout

WASHINGTON — Her life shattered by a crazed gunman’s bullet, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made a surprise visit yesterday to a Capitol hearing to plead for action on gun control.

“Speaking is hard, but I need to say something important,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying, too many children. We must do something.”

Giffords, who was shot in 2011, was accompanied by her husband, Mark Kelly, at a witness table that included a leader of the NRA.

She was a last-minute addition to the witness list. Speaking haltingly, Giffords uttered just 80 words, then made a fist and tapped her chest.

“Gabby’s gift for speech is a distant memory,” Kelly told the committee after she left. “She struggles to walk and she is partially blind . . . but in the last two years, we have watched Gabby’s determination, spirit and intellect conquer her disabilities.”Giffords and Kelly later went to the White House to visit with President Obama.