Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who survived a 2011 assassination attempt, told a friendly audience in Thornton on Aug. 6 that it’ll take persistence over the long haul to end gun violence.

“Move ahead, do not look back. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward, no matter what,” said Giffords, a leader in the gun safety movement, at a town hall at Trail Winds Recreation Center organized by the Colorado Democratic Party.

Asked where she finds motivation, Giffords responded: “Be bold. Be courageous. The nation is counting on you.”

Giffords was partially paralyzed and suffered brain damage when she was shot in the head at a constituent-outreach event outside a grocery store in Tucson in a mass shooting that killed six people and wounded another 12. She stepped down from Congress the following year to work on her recovery. She later co-founded GIFFORDS, a national organization that advocates for gun control policies, with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who was later elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, state House Majority Leader Monica Duran and state party chair Shad Murib echoed Giffords’ message throughout the roughly hour-long discussion, which was moderated by Murib.

The Democrats also urged the crowd of about 100 to help defeat U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, the freshman Republican who represents the 8th Congressional District, in next year’s election.

Evans, a former state lawmaker and retired police officer, won the election in the closely divided seat last year by less than a percentage point. A national political newsletter last month ranked the district as one of the most competitive in the country. At last count, seven Democrats had launched campaigns for the seat.

Bennet noted that while Democrats and some Republicans collaborated in 2022 to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — hailed as the most impactful federal gun safety measure in decades, the bill included $12 billion in funding for mental health programs, as well as numerous other provisions — the GOP’s control of the White House and Congress means additional gun-control legislation is unlikely to pass unless that changes.

“I don’t think in this era we’re going to have a huge amount of success, but we’ve got to keep working, keep going,” said Bennet, who is running for governor. “We’ve got to make sure that we do everything we can to change the House in the next election, and that starts with this congressional district right here in Colorado. We want to make sure we don’t wake up after the election is over and know that we’ve sent another person to Washington that doesn’t support the vision that Gabby is here to represent tonight, and all of us are here to share.”

Citing their own event, the Democrats on stage at the town hall also repeatedly called out Evans for declining to hold any in-person, public town halls since taking office in January.

“We are here in MAGA Republican Gabe Evans’ congressional district,” Murib said, eliciting booing from the crowd, “and we decided to host this town hall here because he simply refuses to visit with his constituents. These are issues that matter to people, and he is not sitting down with folks to hear from them.”

None of the four Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have held a traditional town hall this year, though they’ve all hosted remote events, including telephone town halls and virtual forums that allowed the public to participate. This spring, House GOP leaders advised their party’s lawmakers to avoid holding the events, claiming that leftist agitators were preventing civil discussions from taking place.

Bennet, who held a town hall in Durango the night before, boasted that he’s among the most prolific town hall hosts in the Senate. He said that facing constituents is an important part of the job and an effective way to communicate the effects of the Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill signed into law this summer by President Donald Trump.

“I think that I’m trying to do it by having town hall after town hall after town hall,” Bennet said. “I was in Durango yesterday and here tonight to make sure people understand what’s actually in this bill.”

Trump and most Republicans say the law — dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill — will jolt the economy by preventing income tax rates from rising and adding new tax breaks. Democrats, however, say the law’s tax cuts are tilted toward the wealthy and that reductions to Medicaid and other safety net spending will leave Americans worse off.

A spokeswoman for Evans told Colorado Politics that the Republican stands by his vote in favor of the bill and looks forward to campaigning on it.

“As a father, Army veteran, and former cop, Congressman Gabe Evans is fighting for working families,” Evans aide Delany Bomar said in a text message. “That’s why he supports the One Big Beautiful Bill, which secures the border, protects Medicaid, empowers law enforcement, and removes taxes on tips and overtime. The more Democrats talk about opposing these policies, the more unlikable they are for commonsense Coloradans.”

Until her closing remarks, Giffords only spoke briefly during the town hall, each time handing the microphone to Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at GIFFORDS, to elaborate.

“Alabama!” Giffords said in response to a question about the chances of passing any legislation to reduce gun violence.

“So one day, we woke up and we saw that Alabama had actually passed some pretty groundbreaking legislation to prevent gun violence,” a smiling Gonzalez said, adding that the conservative state had outlawed retrofitting legal firearms to make them illegal. “And that happened in Alabama of all states.”

As the event came to a close, Giffords elaborated on her approach.

“Our lives can change quickly,” she said. “Mine did when I was shot, but I never gave up hope. I chose to make a new start, to move ahead, to not look back.”

Noting that she’s “relearning so many things — how to walk, how to talk — Giffords added: “And I’m fighting to make the country safer. It can be so difficult. Losses, hurt, setbacks are hard, but I tell myself, move ahead.”

She said she finds joy “in small things,” such as riding her bike, playing the French horn and laughing with friends.

“Things add up. We are living in challenging times,” she concluded. “We’re up to the challenge. My own recovery has taken years — many, many, many people have helped me along the way, and I learned so much. I learned when people care for each other and work together, progress is possible. A better world is possible, but change doesn’t happen overnight, and we can’t do it alone. Join me. Let’s move ahead together.”

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