Gary M. Williams / EPA

The ambulance carrying Rep. Gabrielle Giffords leaves University Medical Center behind a police escort in Tucson, Jan. 21. The lawmaker, who was the target of an assassination attempt earlier this month, left the Arizona hospital where she was being treated to undergo further rehabilitation in Houston.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star via AP

People stand along Campbell Avenue in Tucson, Ariz., as the ambulance carrying Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, passes by on Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords is being transported to a medical facility in Houston.

Matt York / AP

People wave and applaud as the ambulance carrying Rep. Gabrielle Giffords leaves University Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 21, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz.

Full story.

It's interesting how a place as normal as the neighborhood grocery store can be transformed by an event like the Tucson shootings into a site for a community to come together, mourn, and memorialize.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

A woman, right, who lost a step-father and who has another family member who was wounded during the shooting rampage at the Safeway supermarket in the La Toscana Village parking lot is comforted on Jan.14, in Tucson, Az.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

A woman, right, who lost a step-father and who has another family member who was wounded during the shooting rampage at the Safeway supermarket in the La Toscana Village parking lot mourns on Jan. 14, in Tucson, Az. The supermarket is scheduled to re-open tomorrow. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head and is in critical condition in the hospital after a mass shooting at a Safeway grocery store that killed six and injured several others.

Read the latest on the shootings and those being mourned here, and see our slideshow of these memorials.

This is the best response to the shooting that I’ve seen.

Julie Jacobson / AP

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., greets a constituent during a two-hour "Congress on Your Corner" event, Jan. 14, 2011, at her office in Las Vegas. Berkley met with constituents in one of the first public congressional events since an assassination attempt on Arizona’s Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

John Cross / The Mankato Free Press via AP

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz talks with constituent Betty Winkworth during a "Congress on Your Corner" meeting at a supermarket in Mankato, Minn. on Friday. Walz announced the meeting on his website with this statement, “Hearing the thoughts and ideas of southern Minnesotans is the cornerstone of our representative democracy. I am looking forward to the opportunity to hear from folks.”

Msnbc.com obtained several images of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords prior to her time as a politician. Here are a few:

Scripps College

A page entitled, "Just do it!" in La Semeuse, the Scripps College yearbook in 1993. The photo at right shows Giffords in traditional Mennonite clothing. That same year, she won a Fulbright award to study Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups in Northern Mexico. Gifford's senior thesis was titled "Wish Books and Felt-Tipped Fantasies: The Sociology of Old Colony Mennonite Drawings."

Scripps College

Gabrielle Giffords, right, laughs with her mom, Gloria Kay Fraser Giffords, in a photo published in the 1993 Scripps College yearbook. Gabrielle received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American history from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. in 1993.

University High School

University High School portrait of Gabrielle Giffords, class of 1988. Dr. John Hosmer, taught history to the future lawmaker. He tells msnbc.com, "Gabrielle sat in the front row. She was inquisitive ... She was a very mature person from the moment she walked in the door."

As an editor, researching for biography slideshows is always a fascinating duty to be entrusted with. It's like being hired as a private eye.

To see more photos and learn about some of the events that have shaped the Congresswoman's life, see our slideshow HERE.

Pima County Sheriff's Forensic Unit / Reuters

Jared Lee Loughner, the lone suspect in the attempted assassination of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, is shown in this Pima County Sheriff's Forensic Unit handout photograph released on Jan. 10, 2011. Loughner made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges.

We published this picture on our cover today because it’s an important news picture, but we debated whether to include it in PhotoBlog.

You could make the argument that the alleged shooter wants the notoriety and fame that comes from an event like this, and we’re playing right into his plans. Honestly, I wouldn’t argue with you on that point.

On the other hand, this is the picture that everyone has been waiting for, and it's certainly striking: "Ghoulish and grinning," as Brian Williams reported on NBC Nightly News. We find ourselves asking, "Who could do this?," and look for the details that could help answer that question. This is one of those details. Our hope is that information, however ghoulish, has value. It adds to the sum of human knowledge. It sparks conversations and healthy debate. It helps citizens understand the events of our time and do something about them.

The tragic stories I’ve seen and read about the victims are sad, but the stories about the heroes who jumped into the line of fire and saved untold lives give me hope. I wish there was something we all could do to ease the pain of those who are most touched by this horrific event.

UPDATED 1/21/2011:

Yesterday the Washington Post's Paul Farhi reported on newspapers' differing uses of the Loughner photograph across the country, and described the photograph this way:

In contrast to the few available photos taken before his arrest, Loughner's mug shot suggested defiance, unapologetic glee, indifference to consequence and possible derangement. (full story)

Today, Zane Gutierrez, a friend of Loughner's, told the TODAY show's Meredith Vieira this about the picture:

Jared was a really. . . he was a nice guy. The difference between the picture that is going around everywhere now, with the shaved head, that's not Jared Loughner, that's not my friend. That's a monster, that was a different person. (full video)