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Gabrielle Giffords urges lawmakers: `Have some courage,' meet voters

Posted at 12:59 PM, Feb 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-23 14:59:58-05

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- who survived an assassination attempt -- is urging members of Congress to "have some courage" and face their constituents.

Her comments Thursday are in response to a Texas congressman -- Republican Louie Gohmert -- who this week invoked Giffords' 2011 shooting in explaining why he's currently only holding telephone town halls.

Gohmert says there are groups "from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology" who are attending town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety.

Giffords says town halls were a hallmark of her time in Congress, and she continues to meet with the public today in campaigning for stricter gun laws.

Gohmert says that when the threat of violence recedes, he'll go back "to the civil town hall meetings" he's had before.