Gabrielle Giffords confronts shooter Jared Lee Loughner in court Before the sentencing, Giffords and her husband confronted the man who shot her, telling him in a dramatic courtroom session that he had "failed to extinguish the beauty of life." Reading from prepared remarks, Giffords's husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, made an impassioned statement on behalf of the couple that was both highly personal and deeply political in its appeal for stricter gun control. In it, they told Loughner that although he had changed Giffords's life forever, he had not succeeded in his mission. "Mr. Loughner, by making death and producing tragedy, you sought to extinguish the beauty of life, to diminish potential, to strain love and to cancel ideas," Kelly said. You tried to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as your own. But know this, and remember it always: You failed. The court appearance marked the first time that Giffords has come face to face with Loughner since he opened fire at a constituent meeting she was holding in a supermarket parking lot in January 2011, shooting Giffords in the head at close range. Twelve other people were also wounded by gunfire in the attack. Giffords did not speak at the sentencing hearing. She stood by her husband's side as they faced Loughner, who was about 20 feet away and showed little emotion as he listened to a succession of victims. "You pointed a weapon and shot me three times," said Susan Hileman as she stared directly at Loughner. "We've been told about your demons, about the illness that skewed your thinking," she said, visibly shaking at times, the Associated Press reported. Your parents, your schools, your community, they all failed you. Hileman said she would "walk out of this courtroom and into the rest of my life, and I won't think of you again." Kelly called on politicians across America to tackle the issue of gun violence - the first time he or Giffords had spoken so forcefully on the issue. "We are a people who can watch a young man like you spiral into murderous rampage without choosing to intervene before it is too late," he said. We have a political class that is too afraid to do something as simple as have a meaningful debate about our gun laws and how they are being enforced. We have representatives who look at gun violence not as a problem to solve, but as the white elephant in the room to ignore. Many of the survivors of the shooting that Loughner carried out were in the packed federal courtroom to hear him being sentenced to life in prison. Also present were the families of those killed, who included John Roll, an Arizona judge; Gabe Zimmerman, who served on the congresswoman's staff; and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green. Kelly paid tribute to each of those victims in his remarks, before continuing: