Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Gifford and her husband Captain Mark Kelly

Maritime Reporter points out the connection between the US Merchant Maritime Academy and this weekend’s tragic shooting of Congresswoman  Gabrielle Giffords and nineteen others at a supermarket in northwest Tucson, Arizona, which left six dead and Representative Giffords in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.   Representative Gifford’s husband, U.S. Navy Captain Mark E. Kelly, a NASA Astronaut, earned a  B.S. degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) at Kings Point, NY in 1986.  He is reported to have proposed marriage to Gabrielle Giffords on the King’s Point campus in 2006.  Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families impacted by this tragedy.