Giffords Visits Newtown, Conn.

In this Sept. 6, 2012 file photo, former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords blows a kiss after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. A spokesman on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013 said Connecticut’s lieutenant governor has been invited to attend a meeting between Giffords and families of the victims of the deadly Newtown elementary school shooting. Photo: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Friday visited the Connecticut town where a gunman killed 26 people last month inside an elementary school.

Giffords, who was shot and critically wounded in the 2011Tucson shooting in which six people were killed and a dozen others were wounded, met with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and Newtown’s first selectman, according to Sue Marcinek, an assistant to the selectman. Giffords was accompanied by her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

She was planning to meet later Friday with families of some of the Newtown victims, according to Steve Jensen, a spokesman for Wyman.

Giffords was left partially blind, with a paralyzed right arm and brain injury, when a gunman opened fire at a constituent meet-and-greet outside a grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011.

The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.

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

“This time our response must consist of more than regret, sorrow, and condolence,” Kelly said on his Facebook page, calling 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.”