Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords D-Ariz. launched a new policy group this morning dubbed Americans for Responsible Solutions. The organization calls for government action to stop gun violence.

That sounds pretty standard, but in this morning’s USA Today op-ed, Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly specifically criticize the National Rifle Association – signalling that she will directly challenge the group’s influence.

Calling the organization an “ideological fringe,” Giffords calls out the NRA leadership’s “defiant and unsympathetic response” to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties. Rather than conducting a dialogue, they threaten those who divert from their orthodoxy with political extinction,” she writes.

Giffords was shot in the head two years ago in Arizona as Jared Lee Loughner – wielding a Glock handgun – wounded thirteen people and killed six others.

“We have experienced too much death and hurt to remain idle,” she wrote. “Our response to the Newtown massacre must consist of more than regret, sorrow and condolence. The children of Sandy Hook Elementary School and all victims of gun violence deserve fellow citizens and leaders who have the will to prevent gun violence in the future.”