Long before suspected shooter Lee Loughner shot Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords point blank in the head and killed six others, Giffords had received death threats.

Her husband Mark Kelly quoted her as saying, "Someday, I'm really worried that  somebody's going to come up to me at one of these events with a gun."

But she never let that stop her from making herself readily available to her constituents at her Congress On Your Corner events, where she had no security. Even after a contentious race that landed her back in Congress, Giffords stood for what she believed -- including a pro-gun stance. People magazine quoted Arizona state representative Steve Farley as saying, “I’d ask her, ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ and she’d say ‘No, we have to stand up for what we believe in,” said Farley.

And now, she’s in a rehab facility after miraculously surviving a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head.