An empty wooden chair holds a small stack of cream envelopes in a cool blue-grey room.

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Gabrielle Giffords

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Giffords says senators saw modest, practical proposals from moderates in both parties. Then, in her account, they glanced at the gun lobby and did nothing. She calls that inaction shameful, both for them and for the government.

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