Slideshow: Former Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

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By Kasie Hunt, NBC News

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' words during a brief opening statement at a Senate hearing on gun violence were careful, slow and deliberate.

But they were firm: "Too many children are dying," she said Wednesday, breaking up the syllables during her testimony to open a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun laws.

"It will be hard, but the time is NOW," said Giffords, who has embarked on an arduous recovery after being critically wounded at Tucson Safeway while meeting with constituents in early 2011. "You. Must. Act. Be bold. Be cour-ag-eous. Amer-i-cans are count-ing on you." Continue reading the full story.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Senate Judiciary Committee members, from left, Sen. John Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. John Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member Sen. John Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. John Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. John Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. John Richard Durbin (D-IL) listen to testimony during a hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30 in Washington, D.C.

Photos by Alex Wong / Getty Images

Emily Nottingham, center, mother of Gabe Zimmerman, a staff member to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' who was killed during the Tucson, Ariz. shootings receives a standing ovation, Jan. 16, 2013, during a hearing before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Roll Call reported on Wednesday:

Lori Haas, left to right, whose daughter was shot and survived at the Virginia Tech shooting, Founder of ProtestEasyGuns.Com Abigail Spangler, and President of Million Mom March Martina Leinz hold hands as they listen to testimony of Superintendent of schools of Newtown, Connecticut, Janet Robinson about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

House Democratic leaders convened a hearing Wednesday showcasing the emotional scars left by gun violence on colleagues and countrymen in recent years, an event designed to dovetail with President Barack Obama’s decision to pursue government action on the issue.

The nearly two-hour-long session in the Rayburn House Office Building did not present specific policy demands as much as it tried to make the case for why such measures are necessary. The witnesses included Newtown, Conn., Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson; Emily Nottingham, the mother of Gabe Zimmerman, a staffer for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who was killed in the 2011 Tucson, Ariz., shootings; Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Scott Knight, former chairman of the International Chiefs of Police’s Firearms Committee.

Nottingham did not mince words. “I am sad beyond words at the deaths and injuries in Tucson, Aurora, Newtown and too many other places, but I am also angry that we — you and I — have made it so easy for this to happen,” she said. “We have allowed ourselves to overemphasize gun rights to the detriment of other rights, including the most important, the right to be alive.”

Related PhotoBlog posts:

• Gabrielle Giffords shooting and reaction
• Sandy Hook Elementary shooting

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Denis Balibouse / Reuters

Mark Kelly, NASA astronaut and commander of mission STS-134, walks with NASA astronaut Greg Johnson, ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori and other roped party members walk from the Refuge des Cosmiques back to L'Aiguille du Midi near Mont-Blanc in Chamonix July 23.

Denis Balibouse / Reuters

Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, center, stands with her husband Mark Kelly, right, NASA astronaut and commander of mission STS-134, and mountain guide Vincent Lameyre before Kelly and two other astronauts walked from L'Aiguille du Midi to the Refuge des Cosmiques near Mont-Blanc in Chamonix July 23.

Slideshow: Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Saul Loeb / EPA

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

Launch slideshow

Reuters reports: CHAMONIX, France- Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, still recovering from wounds after being shot last year, traveled high up into the French Alps on Monday with her astronaut husband Mark Kelly.

Giffords, who still uses a wheelchair much of the time, was on her first trip outside the United States since she was shot in the head by a gunman in January 2011 as she met local people outside a Tucson supermarket.

She rode the two-stage cable car to a station with spectacular views of Mont Blanc and other peaks in France, Italy and Switzerland. Full story

Ross D. Franklin / AP

In an election to fill former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' congressional seat, Democratic candidate Ron Barber, right, celebrates a victory with Giffords, left, as he gives her a hug prior to speaking to supporters at a post election event in Tucson on June 12, 2012.

Michael O'Brien of msnbc.com reports — Democrat Ron Barber has won a special House election in southern Arizona to finish the term of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, The Associated Press projected.

Giffords, who was critically injured in a Jan. 2011 event in her district, resigned earlier this year.

A former aide to Giffords, Barber, who was also injured in the attack outside a supermarket that left six dead and 12 others injured, faced a challenge from Jesse Kelly, a Republican who narrowly lost to Giffords in the 2010 midterm elections.

The campaign was imbued with emotions that still linger from the attack, which forced Giffords’s retirement – despite remarkable progress toward recovery – earlier this year. Read the full story.

Related content:

• NBC Politics: Giffords officially resigns from Congress
• More images of Gabrielle Giffords on PhotoBlog

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Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gets a hug from House Cloak Room attendant Ella Terry after she resigned from the House of Representatives on Jan. 25. Giffords resigned from Congress to focus on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head she received last year from a lone gunman in Arizona.

Slideshow: Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Saul Loeb / EPA

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

Launch slideshow

Amid tears, salutes and standing ovations, Representative Gabrielle Giffords submitted her resignation from Congress on Wednesday to focus on her recovery from an assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona, last year.

In farewell remarks that hinted at a second political career in the future, the Democratic lawmaker said: "I will recover and will return. And we will work together again, for Arizona, and all Americans." Her remarks were read to the House by one of her friends, Democratic Representative Deborah Wasserman-Schultz.

-- Reuters contributed to this blog post

Related links:

• NBC Politics: Giffords officially resigns from Congress
• More Images of Gabrielle Giffords

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Gabrielle Giffords waves as she is applauded on the House floor on the day she resigned from office, Jan. 25.

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Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, read Rep. Gabriell Giffords resignation speech on the House floor on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

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Giffords hands House Speaker John Boehner her letter for resignation on Jan. 25.

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House Speaker John Boehner tears up after accepting Gabrielle Giffords resignation.

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A standing ovation for Gabrielle Giffords as she leaves the House floor for the last time after turning in her resignation, Jan. 25.

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Gabrielle Giffords family watches from the balcony overlooking the House floor as she submits her resignation, Jan. 25.

By Kara Kearns, msnbc.com

On the House floor Wednesday morning, the day after her appearance at the president’s State of the Union address in the same chamber, Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords formally offered her resignation to Speaker John Boehner.

Walking with a limp and guided by her friend, Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Giffords made her way to the well at the front of the chamber. Other members of the Arizona delegation surrounded her as Republican Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake held her hand.

A crying Wasserman Schultz applauded the strength of her colleague. "I am so proud of my friend," she said, placing on her hand on Giffords' back and wiping back tears. "It will always be one of the great treasures of my life to have met Gabby Giffords and to have served with her in this body,” the Florida congresswoman added. 

• Full story. 
• Her letter of resignation.

Watch the video from the event below.

Slideshow: Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Saul Loeb / EPA

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

Launch slideshow

Larry Downing / Reuters

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., in January, 2011, throws a kiss as she stands with Rep. Jeff Flake, left, as they await President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 24, 2012.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama hugs retiring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as the president arrives to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

One day before her retirement from the House of Representatives, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made an emotional appearance at President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Giffords, who was shot in the head a little more than at year ago during a community meeting in Tucson, Ariz., received a warm welcome when she walked into the room.

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Slideshow: Obama's third year in the White House

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From the debt ceiling debacle to the death of Osama bin Laden, it was an eventful year in office for the nation's 44th president.

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Slideshow: Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Saul Loeb / EPA

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

Launch slideshow

Jonathan Gibby / Getty Images

A memorial rests on a highway on Jan. 8 for the six people that lost their lives in a deadly shooting last year across from the La Toscana Village Safeway in Tucson, Ariz. Memorial services will be held throughout the day in Tucson to commemorate the one year anniversary of a shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded more than a dozen including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

AP reports:

The 41-year-old Giffords has spent the last year in Houston undergoing intensive physical and speech therapy. Doctors and family have called her recovery miraculous after the Jan. 8 shooting; she is able to walk and talk, vote in Congress and gave a televised interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer in May. But doctors have said it would take many months to determine the lasting effects of her brain injury. The three-term congresswoman has four months to decide whether to seek re-election.

"She's making a lot of progress. She's doing great," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, a close friend, said. "She still has a long way to go."

Full story: Giffords, Tucson mark deadly rampage anniversary

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Matt York / AP

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband, retired Capt. Mark Kelly, meet both active and retired airmen after serving a Thanksgiving meal to troops at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on Nov. 24.

Matt York / AP

The AP reports:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords helped serve a Thanksgiving meal to service members and retirees at a military base in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz.

Giffords arrived in the dining hall at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base at midday Thursday wearing a ball cap and an apron with her nickname of "Gabby" sewn on the front. She was accompanied by her retired astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, who also donned an apron.

Giffords used only her left hand as she served, a sign that physical damage remains from the injuries she suffered when she was shot in January.

Kelly supported her from her left side as she worked the turkey station on the serving line. He served ham.

Afterward, she mingled with service members, exchanging pleasantries and mostly one word greetings and responses.

She did tell Airman 1st Class Millie Gray, of Kansas City, Mo., "Happy Thanksgiving, thank you for your service." Read the full story.

P.K. Weis / Giffords Campaign / AP

This most recent photo of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot, was posted to her public Facebook page by her aides Sunday morning June 12. The photo was taken May 17, at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital, the day after the launch of Endeavour and the day before she had her cranioplasty.Giffords could be released from a rehabilitation hospital in Houston sometime this month, a top aide says, offering the latest indication that the Arizona congresswoman is making progress in recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. Woman in background is unidentified.

You can read more here.