Check out Obama’s “Champion of Change.” Barf.
WASHINGTON — Pamela Simon, an aide to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was honored at the White House on Thursday for working to reduce gun violence after being shot in the Tucson massacre on Jan. 8, 2011.
The Tucson retiree was one of nine grassroots activists from across the country who were recognized as a “Champion of Change” for what they’ve done to raise awareness of the issue.
“Each and every one of these champions have been putting their heart and soul on the line to make their communities safer,” said Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Simon said she felt a growing need to speak out against gun violence after the Tucson shooting. She has spent the last two years telling her story and working with grassroots groups throughout the country to try to pass legislation that would require universal background checks for gun buyers.
“When a bullet misses your heart by a quarter of an inch, it leaves you with the feeling that you were left on this Earth for a purpose,” Simon said in a panel discussion at the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.
On Thursday, she joined activists from throughout the country for a day-long session of workshops and discussions that focused on topics such as guns and women, guns and youth, guns and faith, and guns and mental health.
The event took place the day after a mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, where an Iraq war veteran with mental health problems killed three people and wounded 16 before taking his own life.
A mentally ill man also was responsible for the mass shooting that killed six people and wounded Simon, Giffords and 11 others who were attending a Congress on Your Corner event at a grocery store near Tucson. Simon was shot in the chest and the wrist. Giffords was shot in the head and sustained severe brain damage.
“Once you’ve been a victim of gun violence, these shootings are no longer just something you read about in the newspaper and feel bad about,” Simon said. “You know the confusion, the panic and the unmitigated horror. And you know that the victims’ families are getting phone calls that will change their lives forever.”
Simon said the failure of Congress to take action is frustrating, especially in the face of statistics that show an average of 33 Americans die in gun violence each day.
Senate leaders tried to pass a bill a year ago to require universal background checks on gun buyers, but it failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. The vote came in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Still, Simon said she is encouraged by the growing number of grassroots activists working in their states and local communities to educate people about the issue.
“Even though every mass shooting on the news is horrifying, I also see people making a lot of progress,” she said. “Like many movements of national importance — whether it’s civil rights or clean water — it will happen on the ground first.”
After recovering from her wounds, Simon returned to Giffords’ Tuscon office, where she served as community outreach coordinator. She retired in 2012, when Giffords left office.
After that, Simon said she felt free as a private citizen to speak out against gun violence at rallies and in interviews.
In 2012, Simon helped launch the Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ Demand a Plan initiative that asked presidential candidates to offer a plan to reduce gun violence.
She also has worked with groups such as Moms Demand Action, Arizonans for Gun Safety, Moms Rising, Organizing for Action, Tucson Community Against Gun Violence and Americans For Responsible Solutions. The latter group, founded by Giffords and Giffords’ husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, works to pass legislation to require universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Simon said she felt some trepidation in 2012 when she stood on the steps of New York City Hall and spoke at a news conference on behalf of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
“I looked out at about 30 reporters facing me and suddenly it hit me: This is just another classroom,” said Simon, who taught middle school and high school in Tucson for more than 20 years before going to work for Giffords. “That was my ah-ha moment.”
Simon, who taught middle school at the school Tucson shooter Jared Loughner attended as a boy, said she believes by sharing her story she can change people’s minds.
She described an incident near the state capitol in Phoenix where she spoke to a young man who was protesting against gun control and had guns holstered on both hips. He was hostile and wouldn’t talk to her until she told him she had been wounded in the Tucson shooting.
“His eyes softened and he said, ‘I’m glad you survived,'” Simon said. “”If I can move people even a little bit, then what I’m doing is worth it.”
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/03/giffords-former-aide-honored-white-house/7278971/
Poor simple Simon, she thinks that because a gun owner is glad she survived we’re going to support her agenda? We’re not monsters, we never root for the criminals even when they attack 2nd Amendment-hating scum like Simon.
Yet here’s what I want to know, when will the White House honor the thousands of Americans who use guns in self-defense of themselves and others? Guns Save Lives had documented quite a few of those stories, but I guess you have to become a victim to be a “Champion of Change.”
Here’s something else I want to know, what good are universal background checks when the mass shooter has no record? Lopez had perfectly normal military career before he shot all those people at Fort Hood. People that were disarmed by the Clinton administration because they wanted our military to look like an unarmed corporate office.
Maybe Michael Savage is right, perhaps the liberals are disarming our military because they fear a coup-de-etat. I assure you, liberals, the likelihood of a coup happening in Americans is zilch. It’s bad enough when your stupid fears cause us to lose money with government-funded “global warming” research, but when our soldiers die because they’re not allowed to bring their guns to work, that’s beyond intolerable.