Tucson, survivors mark 5 years since mass shooting
Though the gathering Friday was to remember the victims of a shooting outside Tucson five years ago, among the survivors exchanging hugs, tears and smiles was a woman who lost her son in another mass shooting.
Caren Teves, whose son was among 12 killed at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., has been welcomed into the fraternity of survivors of the 2011 shooting at a Safeway grocery store outside Tucson that killed six and wounded 13, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
“They reached out to me,” said Teves, who lives in Phoenix, but drove down for the morning ceremony. “It’s a very difficult thing to grasp unless you’re there.”
As the ceremony ended, she stood in the hospital lobby near Patricia Maisch, the woman who wrestled a magazine of bullets away from the gunman who shot Giffords and fired into the crowd waiting to see her. Maisch's actions prevented the gunman from reloading,
“We’re a comfort to each other,” Maisich said. “We’ve taken her into our group. We’ve made her a double survivor.”
Praying for the living and dead
The ceremony, which has become an annual event in the five years since the shooting, was planned for the grounds outside the Banner University Medical Center, on the expansive lawn where an impromptu memorial of flowers and other items grew in the days following the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting. But the threat of inclement weather moved it inside a hospital auditorium.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a hospital chaplain, led the prayers.
“We pray for anyone who was wounded emotionally or psychologically,” he said from the stage. “We pray for everyone who bears scars from the day, that they continue to be healed.”
He also made an oblique reference to Jared Loughner, the gunman who was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in federal prison for the shooting.
“We pray for those suffering any form of mental illness,” he said. “We pray that resources may be provided to give them any treatment they need.”
The names of the six dead were read, followed by the 13 who were injured. A bell rang after each name. Across the city, others rang bells at the same time.
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Gabby Giffords and making progress
This was the first year that Giffords was not in Tucson for the anniversary of the shooting. She and her husband, the retired astronaut Mark Kelly, were in Washington, D.C., and had planned to meet with staff members of their group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, many of whom worked for Giffords while she was in Congress.
“It is kind of unbelievable to think five years has gone by,” Kelly said in a telephone conference call with reporters on Thursday. “In some ways, it feels like it has been a long time.”
Giffords interjected, “A long time.”
Kelly continued. “And in many ways, it feels like it was yesterday.”
“Like yesterday,” Giffords said.
Though Giffords' right side is paralyzed, she continues to improve through intensive therapy, Kelly said. In November, she completed the 40-mile charity bike tour in Tucson, despite breaking a femur while training. Her goal this year, Kelly said, was to take up horseback riding. She had learned riding as a child and had competed, he said.
The two were in Washington, D.C., and at the White House this week when President Barack Obama announced executive actions to strengthen background checks for gun purchasers.
“Personally, for both Gabby and I, it was very satisfying to see all of this come together,” Kelly said.
Daniel Hernandez, who was a Giffords intern at the time of the shooting, and who put pressure on her gunshot wound to stave off blood loss, said the Obama announcement brought some joy to survivors during a week that annually brings more grief than most.
“It provided a small reprieve,” he said. “It allowed us to have this moment of odd celebration.”
Hernandez, who stood behind Obama at the White House when he made his announcement, said the small steps Obama announced were not a panacea for gun violence but represented “a step in the right direction.”
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Ken Dorushka, who took a bullet to the forearm while trying to keep his wife from being shot, said he was with other Tucson survivors recording an interview at a Tucson public-television station when Obama made his announcement. They watched it together.
“It was wonderful to see some positive action has taken place after years of inaction,” Dorushka said.
He said it was the opposite of the frustration he felt when Arizona’s Legislature, in the session following the 2011 shooting, voted to make the Colt .45 the official state gun.
Former Rep. Ron Barber, who worked in Giffords' congressional office at the time of her shooting, remembered that he remained conscious after being shot outside the Safeway. He saw the rest of the shooting take place in front of him.
Barber, who held Giffords' House seat for one term, said the political talk around the gun issue had hardened over the years. Barber has continued his mission of trying to improve the quality of political discourse.
“If our leaders can’t show they can get along,” Barber said, “then the population won’t get the leadership it needs.”
Working for change
Maisch said the Tucson shooting has almost been lost in the wave of mass shootings around the country. Her phone used to ring after other mass shootings, with reporters wanting to get her reaction.
"They don’t call as much as they used to,” she said. “There’s too many.”
On days like these, Maisch said, politicians often send their thoughts and prayers.
“Thoughts and prayers are a pile of crap,” she said. “Action is what we need from them.”
Maisch was in the Senate gallery in 2013 when lawmakers failed to pass a bill requiring background checks at gun shows. She shouted “shame on you” to senators and was escorted out by security.
Maisch said on Friday that she was given a two-hour background check following that incident.
“But they said no to a two-minute background check for an instrument of destruction,” she said.
Maisch was the first to meet Teves, after the Aurora, Colo., shooting in 2012.
Teves wanted to attend a town hall meeting with Sen. John McCain. Someone from the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns put her in touch with Maisch and other Tucson survivors. Maisch drove up to attend the McCain town hall with her.
At the town hall, Teves introduced herself, explained how her son was killed, and asked McCain, R-Ariz., to introduce a bill banning assault-style weapons. McCain, she said, told the crowd there was no political will for such a measure. Teves recalled some of the crowd cheered and whooped.
Teves said she hears gun-rights advocates spin scenarios about what could have been done differently at the movie theater, speculating the incident might have ended more quickly if someone else had been armed, for example. Such speculation, while ignoring the fact the Aurora gunman wore full body armor, seems to dismiss Teves’ pain, she said.
Teves recalled that hospital officials told her it would be best not to look at her son. The military-style bullet that entered his head — a full metal jacket, she said — destroyed the back of his skull.
“We never got to see him to say goodbye,” she said while beginning to cry.
“I don’t want another parent to have to tell the story of how their child had their head blown off. Enough already.”
Republic writer Karina Bland continued to this article.