By The Associated Press

Published: Friday, January 4, 2013, 8:46 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, January 9, 2013

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Nearly two years after being critically wounded in a mass shooting, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Friday met with the families of victims in last month's shooting that left 26 people dead inside a Connecticut elementary school.

Giffords was accompanied by her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, to the private meeting that was attended by Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

“As always, I was deeply impressed by the strength and courage and resolve of the families and the extraordinary caring and generosity of Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly in visiting with them,” Blumenthal said.

Giffords met earlier in the day with officials from the state, including Connecticut's lieutenant governor and Newtown's first selectman.

Giffords was left partially blind, with a paralyzed right arm and brain injury, when a gunman opened fire during a constituent meet-and-greet outside a Tucson grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011. Arizona's chief federal judge and five others were killed and 13 peoplewere injured.

The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences.

Kelly said on the day of the Newtown shooting that it should lead to better gun control.

On his Facebook page, he called for “a meaningful discussion about our gun laws and how they can be reformed and better enforced to prevent gun violence and death in America.”

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