Gabby Giffords Meets With Newtown Families

Gabby Giffords met privately yesterday with families of victims from the Newtown shooting as well as local political leaders, reports the Hartford Courant. The event was kept low-key, but the topics of gun laws, mental illness, and "concerns that our society has become desensitized to acts of violence, conflict and aggression" were among the main talking points, a local selectman tells USA Today.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal also attended and said afterward that the Newtown community is healing—and preparing to play a big role in the push to reduce gun violence. "I believe that some of that community is ready now, and a lot will be ready in the future," he said. "Not only ready but will be deeply resolved to seek change." Before their visit to Newtown, Giffords and husband Mark Kelly, who has become an outspoken proponent of stricter gun laws after his wife's shooting, met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor is pushing for the same. (More Sandy Hook Elementary School stories.)