Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelley (courtesy americansforresponsiblesolutions.org)

When former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords first appeared in public to lobby for gun control, TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia quickly concluded that the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex was exploiting her brain injury for political gain. “Guided” by ex-astronaut husband Mark Kelly, the former pro-gun Congresswoman’s halting exhortations rang hollow. In terms of the couple’s relationship, this photo—used by their pet PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions to raise funds to stop the recall of anti-gun Colorado pols—says it all. Giffords is lost inside her own little world,  clutching her sleeved hand like a child. Kelly is oblivious to her source of joy, staring with narrowed eyes at something to her right. (Geddit?) The photograph uses the low angle to make subjects appear heroic. The image’s combination of pathos and the Soviet propaganda poster style are meant to incite anti-gunners to contribute to the cause. Perhaps it does. [h/t CK]

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Yet another vegetable tool to be paraded about like a pet turnip. Just like poor Jim Brady.

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  2. So, what you’re telling me is, the guy that uses thug tactics and storm troopers in his city’s “stop and frisk” program would stoop so low as to use a brain injured woman and her brain-injured husband as shills in a state where he’s made that state’s governor his political bitch?

    Oh, you didn’t tell me that? That’s right, I’m telling you that. 😉

    • Someone wise recently described it well: “They climb over children’s graves to get to the microphone.”

  3. I had a lot of sympathy for Gabby when that whack-job Loughner shot her and the others.

    Had.

    As for Mark “Space Cowboy” Kelly, I’m ashamed we served in the same Navy.

  4. There are plenty of ways for TTAG to make its pro-gun point without appearing to ridicule the disabled. We’d all be better off if this “edition” was edited to remove comments about Gifford’s appearance.

    • In what way is she being ridiculed because of her injury? She’s being ridiculed exactly the same amount as any other anti. Nowhere in the post does it make fun of her disability.

      TTAG doesn’t need to stoop before the altar of political correctness. She is not above criticism because of her injury.

      • Absolutely!

        I’m certain she’s still capable of saying “No, I’m unable to do that”.

        Certainly she understands the heat of the political spotlight. Unless she’s being kept clueless and led by the nose, taking the two faced position she has makes her fair game; and discussion of her presence of mind considering the extremists whose company she is keeping is a relevant topic of concern.

    • She and Mark created their faux PAC and became professional Gun Ban Lobbiests. The dable in community and state politics around the country the same way Bloomer does. They even used the owner of the Colorado Rockies plane for one of there jet set tours this summer. Yet the cry foul because they think the NRA may be supportive of Colorado voters during the recall efforts. Gabby gets to take her lumps just like Bloomer, Shoomer and Shotgun Joe.

    • They fully deserve to be mocked, berated, lambasted or anything else that’s effective (non-violent and legal of course) regarding their anti 2A/American agenda. They don’t listen to logic and the truth is just an obstacle so a mental pummeling is really in order… It’ll just roll off their backs anyway but maybe we can wake some “group thinkers” up.

      • I doubt he has any shame, and he’s probably being paid too much for this to give it up readily, but the only way I can think of to get this guy to shut up and go away is if at some point he comes to the realization of what an a$$hole he is for dragging his poor brain-damaged wife around as an unwitting prop for this propaganda campaign to repeal the Second Amendment. (I know, but that IS the end result they are after.) And correct me if I am wrong (I know I’m not, I took the same oath), didn’t this Navy guy take an oath to defend the constitution? How is this campaign in keeping with that oath?

        As long as there is money to be made and power to be grabbed, however, I doubt this shameless exploitation will subside any time soon.

        • I completely agree, he’s making a lot of money peddling the anti 2A BS… As former Navy I also think Kelly has betrayed his Oath of Enlistment. Thank you for your service… Carry on Cliff….

      • Sigh.

        I’m talking about this part: “Giffords is lost inside her own little world, clutching her sleeved hand like a child.” You can be angry with me all you want, but comments like that give the impression that we’re making fun of an injured person. There’s no need to even risk that. We can just state that she’s wrong, and that she’s being used like every other victim.

        Besides, that photo simply doesn’t show what Mr. Farago thinks it shows, and other people aren’t going to see what he inexplicably sees. She looks like she is talking to a crowd, while holding one wrist with her other hand. That is not an unusual thing for an adult to do, when addressing a crowd, and having nothing to do with their hands.

    • As long as they put themselves out there as the faces of gun control they are fair game. Gabby has no problem using her condition for the cause, we have no problem attacking the cause by illustrating the craven use of her disability.
      Now if she was attacking the way Jared’s mom suppressed her son’s issues and allowed him to arm up then that would be different. It also would be ignored by the MSM and attacked by those who defend the mentally ill’s right to do whatever they want despite consequences

  6. She’s grabbing her right arm because it’s fatigued from hefting all that MAIG and Joyce Foundation cash.

    • No, she’s holding it because she doesn’t have the mental capacity to keep it from flopping around. We saw it in a sling during their recent music video at the range.

    • It seems to me that her injuries were to the left side of her brain. As the body’s motor functions are reversed it would seem likely that left brain damage might make it difficult or impossible to control the right arm.

      As the left brain is also closely related to logical thought processes it makes it that much clearer that she is a political puppet being manipulated by her husband and those willing to pay him to advance their civilian disarmament agenda.

  7. Just remember that she was shot by a crazed anarcho-leftist. They eat their own, but blame law abiding Americans as a means of dis-arming them to implement their sociopathic globalist dictatorship.

    • Perhaps that’s why they want to disarm all of us… if Liberals are the only ones that can be considered “normal” or “compassionate, then go off on a killing spree, what does that say about “cold-hearted” “violent” conservatives? Obviously nobody can be trusted with guns at that point, which may explain some of the dumber puppets joining the cause.

  8. Hard to berate Gabby since we/I don’t know what her cognitive state is currently. Mark, on the other hand, deserves all the resistance to his program that can be mustered.

    • Well let’s look at the facts, either she’s incompetent and is being used or is competent and is anti freedom, which makes one question her mental competency. It looks like a wash, either way there is something wrong with her brain.

  10. Pointless fluff piece. Its called image marketing. Every marketing campaign composes and selects photos based on the criteria of the message/product being sold, for everything from baked potatoes, to well, this pair of spuds.

    Its hardly incendiary.

  11. I don’t blame Gabby. She had a nutjob criminal take pot shots at her, though I have my doubts she was the only intended target. I’m very glad she was able to recover, and have at least some quality of life. I blame Mark, mister grandstanding solution in search of a problem. He’s a scumbag opportunist of the worst kind.

    • She refused a security detail before the assassination attempt. Several other people were killed during it. She got empathy and sympathy for that heinous attack. However, she has another thing coming if she thinks I am going to step aside while she promotes her gun ban agenda and on top of that, get paid to do it.

  13. since we have no clue as to what the circumstance was of this photo op, I suggest we just leave it alone…

  14. I don’t know if the picture shows her being mentally deficient or not. I agree though that either she is either anti-freedom due to being (likely) misinformed on the issue, or she is not all there mentally.

    • Come on, man. ELABORATE. Don’t be such a weenie.

      Your forum awaits your gilded prose, you chickensh*t bastard.

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