On January 8, 2011, United States Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area.

Six people were killed, including federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll; Gabe Zimmerman, one of Giffords's staffers; and a nine-year-old girl, Christina-Taylor Green.

[7][8][9][10][11] Giffords was holding a meeting called "Congress on Your Corner" in the parking lot of a Safeway store when Jared Lee Loughner drew a pistol and shot her through the head at point-blank range before proceeding to fire on others.

In January 2012, Loughner was found by a federal judge to be incompetent to stand trial based on two medical evaluations, which diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia.

In particular, Sarah Palin was criticized for a poster by her political action committee that featured stylized crosshairs on an electoral map that included Giffords.

[21][22] A United States Representative from Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords, was holding a constituent meeting called "Congress on Your Corner"[15][23] at the Safeway supermarket in La Toscana Village mall, which is in Casas Adobes, a census-designated place north of Tucson.

[32] Another bystander, Roger Salzgeber, clubbed the back of the assailant's head with a folding chair, injuring his elbow in the process, representing the 14th injury.

[36] The first call from the scene to emergency services was received at 10:11 A.M.[21] While waiting for help to arrive, Giffords's intern Daniel Hernández Jr. applied pressure to the gunshot wound on her forehead, and made sure she did not choke on her blood.

[37][38] David and Nancy Bowman, a married doctor and nurse couple who were shopping in the store, immediately set up triage and attended to nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green.

[42] Five people died at the scene,[43] including Chief Judge John Roll and Giffords's community outreach director Gabe Zimmerman.

[63] Because of teacher and student complaints about Loughner's increasingly disruptive behavior in classes, the college suspended him on September 29, 2010, and he dropped out of the school in October.

[75] Later that morning, at approximately 7:30 A.M., Loughner was stopped by an Arizona Game and Fish Department officer after running a red light, but was released with a warning when it was determined that he did not have any outstanding warrants.

[93][94][95] After his sentencing in federal court, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall announced that she would not prosecute Loughner on behalf of the state of Arizona.

LaWall explained that her decision would afford the victims and their families, as well as the community in Tucson and Pima County, an opportunity to move forward with their lives.

[120] During a memorial ceremony on January 12, President Obama announced that earlier that day Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the attack.

[127] In 2011, Mark Kelly, Giffords's husband, published a memoir, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, crediting her with joint authorship.

On January 22, 2012, Giffords announced that she would resign from her congressional seat in order to concentrate on her recovery, but promised to return to public service in the future.

[19] On the eve of the shooting, Giffords had written to a Republican friend, Trey Grayson, Secretary of State of Kentucky, saying, "we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down.

Shortly after the map's posting and the subsequent vandalizing of her office that month, Giffords said, "We're in Sarah Palin's 'targeted' list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district.

[132][133][134] Palin responded to her critics in a January 12 video, rejecting the notion that anyone other than the gunman could bear any responsibility for the Tucson shooting, and accusing the press of manufacturing a "blood libel" to blame her and the right wing for the attacks.

For example, Clarence Dupnik, Pima County Sheriff, initially expressed concern that overheated political rhetoric and violence may be related, observing, "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government.

"[146] President Obama called the shooting an "unspeakable tragedy", adding that "such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society".

[18] Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter T. King announced that he would introduce a bill to ban the carrying of firearms within 1,000 feet (300 m) of certain federal officials.

[158] Some media commentators, such as Howard Kurtz and Toby Harnden, criticized what they perceived as a rush to judgment about the shooter's motivation, disputing suggestions that the shooting was the result of the Tea Party movement or anything in connection to Palin.

[167] A national moment of silence was held at 11:00 a.m. EST on January 10, 2011, on the South Lawn of the White House as well as the steps of the United States Capitol.

[42] At the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game (the first to take place in Arizona), Giffords's intern, Daniel Hernandez Jr., was accompanied onto the field by the families of the shooting victims, and threw the ceremonial first pitch.

[170] For the 2011 State of the Union Address, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado proposed that members of both houses sit together regardless of party, with one seat left empty in honor of Giffords.

[177] On Sunday, January 16, 2011, eight days after the shooting, Vietnam War veteran James Eric Fuller, who had been shot in the knee during the attack, was arrested for disorderly conduct at a town hall meeting.

In an interview during the week after the shooting, Fuller had criticized Palin and what he called the "Tea Party crime-syndicate" for promoting a divisive political climate before the attacks.

[178] Meanwhile, Humphries said he was worried about Fuller's threat, and the dozens of other angry e-mails he received from people blaming right-wing political rhetoric for contributing to the assassination attempt on Giffords.