Scott Kelly Requests Moment of Silence From Space to Honor Victims of 2011 Tuscon Shooting
Astronaut Scott Kelly asks coworkers to join him in a moment of silence to remember the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford.
This Monday, BBC reporter Jon Sopel visited a gun show in the States to which his reaction was almost comedic. This was just a day before President Barack Obama shed a controversial tear while announcing that he’d be taking executive action on gun control. Most personally and less politically, this week astronaut Scott Kelly asked his coworkers at the Space Centers in Houston and around the world to take a moment of silence to recognize the five-year anniversary of the shooting of his sister-in-law, former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson, Arizona.
The January 8, 2011, shooting of 19 people was an attempted assassination of the Arizona Democrat who is married to Kelly’s brother, former astronaut Mark. Giffords was shot in the head and maintained extensive injuries, but survived. Six others weren’t so lucky, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl. Shooter Jared Lee Loughner remains in prison to this day.
Scott Kelly was on the International Space Station when he got the terrible news five years back, and is stationed there again today. During Kelly’s yearlong trip in space to research the effects microgravity and radiation have on the human body, his brother is acting as his control here on Earth. No matter where you stand on the issue, this video is a touching reminder of what it means to be part of a family and to be just plain old human.
