Gabrielle Giffords goes to Newtown to help console victims

Gabrielle Giffords goes to Newtown to help console victims

She came to speak from the heart â€" and from bitter experience.

Former Arizona congressman Gabrielle Giffords, who barely survived being shot in the face by a madman, arrived Friday in Newtown, Conn., hoping to console the heartbroken families of the first-graders and teachers who were slaughtered in the Sandy Hook school massacre.

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Limping slightly and leaning on astronaut husband Mark Kelly for support, Giffords smiled as she entered town hall and embraced Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson.

“We’re so glad you came,” Robinson said. “Thank you.”

“How horrible,” Giffords replied, holding on to Robinson for a beat longer.

Then Giffords was ushered inside for a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Dâ€"Conn.) and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.

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“I am sorry, but there is no public aspect of this meeting,” town official Patricia Llodra said.

After that sitdown, Giffords was expected to go meet the families, most likely at a private home.

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Giffords brought with her a perspective that only a select few share â€" that of a person who came face-to-face with the kind of madness that left 20 innocent children and six school staffers dead on a cruel December morning.

Giffords’ congressional career was cut short and she was left an invalid almost two years ago when a deranged man armed with a legally-purchased Glock 9-mm. semiautomatic shot her just above the left eyebrow in a massacre that killed six people and wounded another 13.

The Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle that Adam Lanza used in the Sandy Hook bloodbath was also legally bought, as was the handgun he used to take his own life on Dec. 14.

Giffords’ visit came a day after some 400 surviving Sandy Hook students trooped back to class for the first time since the mass shooting â€" only in a new building, and in a different town.

The massacre in Newtown spurred new calls for gun control and a shaken President Obama vowed he would make it harder for monsters to kill innocent people with firearms.

“When will we address this problem as a nation?” Kelly tweeted in the aftermath. “The time is now.”

The powerful National Rifle Association responded by vowing to block any attempt to tighten gun laws and floated a proposal that was widely panned â€" assigning gun-toting guards to every school in the country.

csiemaszko@nydailynews.com