Sitting in a wheelchair before a hushed gathering of members of Congress, Arizona's Jennifer Longdon described the day 15 years ago that she was murdered.

The state representative from Phoenix told members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee on Thursday about her life before she was shot in 2004 and the daily struggles she expects will eventually take her life.

"Once upon a time, I was an entrepreneur, an avid hiker. I was in training for my first world title in martial arts," Longdon, a Democrat, said. "All of that changed 15 years ago when I was murdered.

"Mr. Chair, I am dying in slow motion. My life will be cut short by the complications of my gunshot wound. I've lost count of my near misses, the falls, the fractures, the pressure sores and hospitalizations."

Longdon's riveting personal story of how she was wounded in a drive-by shooting that left her paralyzed below the chest moved several members of Congress to thank her for her appearance and express their sorrow at her suffering.

She appeared before Congress as Washington again grapples with what — if anything — should be done to stem gun violence, a problem that has risen as a public concern after another series of gun massacres across the nation this past summer.

Longdon's testimony came on a day when Washington was preoccupied with the unfolding impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Even so, several of those speaking Thursday noted that gun violence is an everyday concern across the country and mass shootings an all-too-common event.

Others in Thursday's hearing discussed the limited research on perpetrators of gun violence and the clinical effects of gunshots on the human body. But it was Longdon who offered the most personal narrative about what it has meant for her.

Longdon introduced herself to the subcommittee as a "mom, a hockey fan, a home cook, a longtime gun owner, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives." She said she was shot in a still-unsolved case, in a car with her then-fiancee, who was shot in the head and shoulder.

"We weren't in a bad neighborhood or buying drugs," Longdon said. "It wasn't road rage. We were simply two of the roughly 262 people who were shot in the U.S. on any given day, and that daily average has only grown over the years.

"I've struggled with what to tell you about gun violence. You have stacks of studies and reports in your offices and those have not moved this body to action. Neither have the personal stories of hundreds of thousands of survivors."

Her testimony was perhaps most wrenching as she discussed the effects of her injuries on her son.

"My family has paid so much more than neatly fits in any accounting ledger," she said. "What is the worth of my son's innocence and the loss of his active and able mother? What price would he pay for the rest of his life because when he needed me most, I was clawing for mere survival? ... That child has dealt, time and again, with doctors preparing him for this one to be the time that I just don't pull through."

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., who is the Ways and Means Committee chairman, said gun violence is a substantial and under-counted cost to the national economy.

"Gun violence imposes nearly $230 billion in annual costs, translating to about one percent of GDP, and rural states have the highest gun violence-related costs as a share of their economies," he said. "But as our witnesses today will acknowledge, there are other, personal costs that are impossible to quantify."

Longdon's congressional appearance marks her continued rise as a national symbol of the toll of America's gun violence problem and the need to better accommodate those with disabilities. She has been featured in Rolling Stone and other national publications.

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Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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