Free guns handed out in US city where Gabrielle Giffords was shot

As local politicians in Tucson, Arizona slammed the plan, Shaun McClusky, a former mayoral candidate who is behind the plan, said that arming over 30 local people had nothing to do with the shooting of Mrs Giffords, which revived America's perennial gun control debate.

"I think what happened to Mrs Giffords was a horrific incident. But her incident and citizens protecting themselves in their homes are completely unrelated," he said.

"This is about individuals, single parents protecting their families," added Mr McClusky, who said he hopes to give guns to 36 individuals, who will be trained and undergo background checks, to be ready to use them within about 60 days.

Mrs Giffords was shot in the head at point blank range in January of 2011 while meeting constituents in Tucson, in an attack by a deranged gunman that killed six people, including a US federal judge.

Local politicians have attacked the plan. "Arizonans in Tucson and across the state are demanding that we reduce gun violence and create safer communities," said Arizona lawmaker Victoria Steele, who represents Tucson.

"Handing out shotguns is not a solution," she said, cited by Fox News, which first reported Mr McClusky's plan.

Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell called it "ideological extremism at its worst" and "a political gimmick that could have dangerous consequences," according to Fox.

Mr McClusky, a real estate and property management consultant, confirmed that he got the idea from a program called the Armed Citizen Project, launched in Houston by a master's student at the University of Texas, Kyle Coplen.

The Armed Citizen Project's website describes it as "a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to training and arming residents in mid-high crime areas with defensive shotguns, for free!"

Edited at telegraph.co.uk by Sarah Titterton