Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Friday will have a Navy combat ship named after her, joining Martha Washington as the only other woman so honored during her lifetime.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jill Biden will join Giffords on Friday for the commissioning of the USS Gabrielle Giffords in Galveston, Texas. Biden, wife of former Vice President Joe Biden, took part in a christening ceremony for the ship in 2015.
Giffords, a Democrat, was shot in the head in Tucson, Ariz., in a 2011 assassination attempt and suffered severe damage to her brain that left her incapacitated for months. Six people were killed in the attack that also left 12 others injured.
The former congresswoman remains paralyzed on most of the right side of her body and suffers from a language disorder known as aphasia.
Giffords has been an outspoken advocate for stricter gun control in the United States, since recovering from the attack. First elected to Congress in 2006, she resigned her seat in January 2012. The following year, she co-founded a gun safety group and super PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, with her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
