Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly marked the two-year anniversary of the shooting that nearly took her life by launching Americans for Responsible Solutions to take on the gun lobby in pursuit of new laws to reduce gun violence.

“Special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission,” Giffords and Kelly wrote in an op-ed that appeared in Tuesday’s USA Today.

Giffords was critically injured in a mass shooting that took the lives of six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. The assailant, Jared Loughner, pled guilty to the crime in 2012 and is serving seven consecutive life sentences.

Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, CT, the gun debate has been largely shaped by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre...

But few could be a better spokesperson against gun violence than a beloved public servant who can write these words: “I was shot in the head while meeting with constituents two years ago today.”