Here's Taranto parsing the forensics of her column-writing abilities on an NRA radio show Friday, caught by Media Matters' Timothy Johnson yesterday:

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From the Op-Ed:

I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

"Speaking is physically difficult for me," Giffords continued. "But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe."

Read the full Op-Ed here.

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President Obama let Mark Barden introduce him before his angry Rose Garden reaction to the failure of the Manchin-Toomey compromise, and to me that signaled a new, long-term, bare-knuckled and visceral approach to the issue of guns. Barden reminded us that the motto of the gun-control group he co-founded, Newtown Promise, is, “Our hearts are broken, but our spirits are not.” That’s got to become the animating drive of a nationwide movement to fight the National Rifle Association and its allies, on every level. This defeat, however crushing and shameful, is just a beginning.

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According to Kelly, it only takes about 5 minutes to fill out a background check form, explaining that background checks are “not the burden that the NRA leadership says it is.”

Kelly agrees with the NRA regarding the maintenance of a mental illness database, however. He “would love to work with leadership of NRA to make sure we get those records in the system," Kelly told anchor Chris Wallace, arguing that the gun background bill currently being discussed in the Senate needs to have strong measures preventing those with known psychological issues from gaining access to guns.

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Just as a televised meeting of Vice President Joe Biden’s post-Newtown gun safety task force was upstaged by breaking news of another school shooting three weeks ago, so did Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing compete with chilling news reports of three more gun horrors: a Chicago teen who marched with her school band in the inaugural parade shot down in a park; an Alabama child taken hostage (and his bus driver murdered) by a known anti-government “survivalist;” three people shot, one dead, after an “office dispute” in Phoenix, barely two hours away from where former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was almost killed two years ago in Tucson.

Those competing gun-violence news stories are not technically a coincidence. With 30 gun homicides a day across the country, you’re going to have gun murders whenever you schedule an event to talk about it. We’re just finally paying attention to it. All of it.

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Giffords was shot in the head during an event with constituents in Tucson, Ariz., in January, 2011. Her husband, Mark Kelly, was also among the witnesses at the hearing.

Giffords said:

"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation, for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard. But the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."

Watch:

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On Tuesday, the NRA released a transcript of Executive Vice President LaPierre's planned opening remarks, which include opposition to universal background checks (”When it comes to the issue of background checks, let’s be honest – background checks will never be ‘universal’ – because criminals will never submit to them"), a defense of gun owners (“Law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violent or deranged criminals") and a renewed call for armed security guards in schools (“It’s time to throw an immediate blanket of security around our children.  About a third of our schools have armed security already – because it works").

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It began earlier this month in Tucson, Ariz., when city officials organized a gun buyback to mark the two-year anniversary of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Locals turned over their guns to law enforcement, and got a $50 Safeway gift card for each gun in return. Officials wound up destroying a total of 212 guns.

Before the guns were destroyed, Todd Rathner, an Arizona lobbyist and NRA national board member, threatened to file a lawsuit. "We do believe that it is illegal for them to destroy those guns," he told NPR. "If property has been abandoned to the police, then they are required by ARS 12-945 to sell it to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and that's exactly what they should do."

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NPR reports that Todd Rathner, a lobbyist in the state and a member of the national board of the NRA, argued that destroying the guns violated Arizona law, and he is now considering a lawsuit against the city. "If property has been abandoned to the police, then they are required by ARS 12-945 to sell it to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and that's exactly what they should do," he said.

NPR also reported that the "Tucson city attorney calls that a misreading of the law."

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, a Republican , said he'd been getting threats over the event.  "I've been getting emails. I've been getting phone calls in the office trying to shut this thing down or 'We're going to sue you' or 'Who do you think you are?'"

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The Hartford Courant flagged the post, from Friday, which has since been taken down. In the comment thread, Hovey continued: "It was political. The Lt Gov was there, [Connecticut Sen. Richard] Blumenthall was there and ALL political types KNOW it is courteous to let sitting Reps known when another political is in their District. So……. There was pure political motives."

As Daily Intel points out, the visit was announced in advance.

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U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says he attended the meeting Friday with the families and was impressed by their strength as well as the caring shown by Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

Giffords met earlier in the day with officials including Blumenthal and the town's first selectman.

It was nearly two years ago that Giffords was critically wounded herself in a mass shooting in Arizona. She was left partially blind and with a brain injury.

The Newtown massacre was carried out Dec. 14 by a gunman who killed 20 first-graders and 6 educators before committing suicide.

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"Her life has been forever changed. Plans she had for our family and her career have been immeasurably altered," said astronaut Mark Kelly, both he and his wife staring at the shooter inside a packed courtroom. "Every day is a continuous struggle to do those things she once was so good at."

Jared Lee Loughner, 24, was then ordered to serve seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years in federal prison for the January 2011 shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Giffords, outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz.

Loughner pleaded guilty under an agreement that guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. He avoids a federal death sentence, although state prosecutors could still decide to try him.

One by one, survivors of the attack at a Giffords political event approached the courtroom podium to address Loughner, each turning toward him where he sat stoic and emotionless at a table with his attorneys.

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The sentencing hearing will mark the first time that victims will confront Jared Lee Loughner in court about the January 2011 shooting at a Giffords political event outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz.

Prosecutors say an unspecified number of victims will comment before U.S. District Judge Larry Burns sentences Loughner, though it's unknown whether Giffords or her husband plan to attend or have a statement read on their behalf. Three shooting victims have told The Associated Press that they intend to comment at the hearing.

The 24-year-old had pleaded guilty three months ago to 19 federal charges under an agreement that guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. The deal calls for the dismissal of 30 other charges and a sentence of seven consecutive life terms, followed by 140 years in prison.

Both sides reached the deal after a judge declared that Loughner was able to understand the charges against him. After the shooting, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and underwent forcible psychotropic drug treatments.

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Yet since 2010, her TED talks on listening to shame and the power of vulnerability have become a viral sensation, in no small part precisely because of her plainspoken honesty about her own struggles with the subject matter. To date, Brown's rousing pleas for humanity to move from a culture of shame, scarcity and numbness toward a more authentic, compassionate and "wholehearted" approach have been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube. But not by Brown herself, who confesses, "It still makes me feel really uncomfortable."

In other words, she gets it. She knows how hard it is for us to put down our emotional armor, how great the fear of failure and criticism -- from both within and without – can be. Yet she plunges on, persuasively making the case that a bolder, braver way of living isn't just happier and more fulfilling. She thinks it's a key component of rising above the tide of debt, addiction and what Brown repeatedly refers to as the painful curse of "disengagement."

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“Obviously, we would have hoped that it would have been brought up as an issue by someone,” said Ladd Everitt, the communications director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. The only reference to guns he heard was when Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer attacked Mitt Romney for raising the fees on gun licenses as governor of Massachusetts. “So it’s certainly not quite the result we wanted on the Democratic side, but it was also very fascinating to just not -- I don’t recall hearing a Republican speaker explicitly talk about the right to keep and bear arms. So it was interesting to me that it didn’t really play on either side.”

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Giffords has made few public appearances since the January 2011 mass shooting in Tucson in which she was shot in the head at point-blank range -- and six other people were killed. It was a devastating injury. Giffords had part of her skull and brain removed, underwent intensive reconstructive surgery, and lost the full use of the right side of her body and half of her vision. Yet her recovery has been nothing short of astonishing – a woman whom early media reports had presumed dead was walking, reading and speaking again, after just months of rigorous therapy.

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What a wonderful, touching moment when the indomitable Gabby Giffords led the pledge at the DNC. She is a great inspiration!

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 7, 2012

Watching Gabby Giffords made me cry.

— Tom Papa (@tompapa) September 7, 2012

Beautiful sight, gabby Giffords.

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) September 6, 2012

And Charlie Crist is up. Bet he feels like hugging Obama again!

— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappasDC) September 7, 2012

um, hi, I usually love politics because it makes me feel pretty. YOU ARE NOT HELPING, KERRY, EVA, AND SCARLETT.

— amaeryllis (@amaeryllis) September 7, 2012

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* Ron Barber, the shot former aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won the special election to keep Giffords' 8th Congressional District seat blue with a comfortable 6-point margin. Giffords appeared on the stage at the victory party last night to congratulate him. But they'll have to do it all over again in November, when Barber will again challenge Republican Jesse Kelly for a chance of winning a full two-year term.

* In Maine, voters chose nominees to face off for retiring Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe's seat. Democrats picked state Sen. Cynthia Dill, while Republicans chose Secretary of State Charlie Summers. Both are expected to lose in November to independent Angus King, a popular former governor.

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