GABBY GIFFORDS PRAISES BOOTED CUB SCOUT, 11

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords this week gave a shoutout to 11year-old Ames Mayfield, the Broomfield Cub Scout at the center of a now-viral controversy with a Colorado state senator, saying, “I’ll campaign for you.”

“This is exactly the kind of courage we need in Congress,” Giffords said in a tweet Thursday. “Ames, call me in 14 years.”

The fifth-grader at Prospect Ridge Academy was kicked out of his den allegedly because of his line of questioning toward Republican state Sen. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins at an event sponsored by the Cub Scouts this month.

The boy asked Marble about gun control — specifically why domestic violence offenders are still allowed to have firearms — and about comments she made at a 2013 legislative hearing on poverty about mortality rates among African-Americans.

Ames’ story has gone viral since a video of the encounter was shared thousands of times across Colorado and the U.S.

Giffords was shot in the head in 2011 during an appearance — as part of her job in Congress — outside a grocery store in suburban Tucson.