[background noises] >> we need to leave the pool -- leave the room, please. >> welcome, everybody come into today's hybrid hearing. pursuing the house rules, some members will appear in person and others will repair remotely via zoom. for members appearing remotely i know you're all familiar with zoom by now but let me remind you, first the house rules require that we see you. so please have your cam is dash cam is turned on at all times. second, members appearing remotely, you are not recognized. third, i will recognize members verbally but numbers retain the right to seek recognition verbally in regular order. lastly, if you want to be recognized outside of regular order, you may identify that in several ways. you may choose -- use the chat function to send a request, you may send an email to the majority staff, or you may unmute your mic to seek recognition. we will begin the hearing in a moment when they tell us they are ready to begin the livestream. the committee will come to order. without objection, the chair has authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. i now recognize myself for an opening statement. today, we will examine the destruction and heartbreak that gun violence is causing across our country. i want to express my deep gratitude to each of our witnesses for being here today. i am particularly grateful to our witnesses who will be discussing the loss of their loved ones and their personal experiences from recent mass shootings in uvalde, texas and buffalo, new york. despite their pain, these witnesses express their strong desire to share their stories with this committee and the public. i know that i speak for every member of this committee when i say that we are inspired by your bravery. for a parent, there is no greater pain than the loss of a child. that across the country since this gun violence is claiming the lives of our children and loved ones in places where they should be safe, our schools, our supermarkets, even our churches and our synagogues. gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in our country. as a society, we are failing our children and we are failing each other. this out-of-control gun violence is a uniquely american tragedy. as you can see in this chart, in 2019 the united states suffered 17 times more gun deaths than the next highest g7 country. we stand alone in mass shootings. other countries have passed sensible gun safety laws and attack their children. and no other country comes close to the number of school shootings we have. between 2009 and 2018, the u.s. had 288, 288 school shootings. all other g7 countries combined had just five. some of my colleagues across the aisle have blamed the violence on mental illness. they have blamed violent video games they have -- games. they have blamed family values. they have even blamed open doors. they have blamed everything but guns. but we know the united states does not have a monopoly on mental illness, video games, or any other excuse. what america does have is widespread access to guns. that includes assault weapons which were designed to kill as many enemy soldiers on the battlefield as possible, as quickly as possible. yet in many states, these weapons of war can be purchased by an 18-year-old just by walking into a store. assault weapons were used in the recent massacres in buffalo, texas, and tulsa. just as they were in parkland, newtown, san bernardino, orlando, las vegas, and so many other mass shootings. these weapons have no place in our communities, no civilian needs an assault rifle, and the second amendment does not protect the right to own a weapon of war. it is time that we banned assault rifles from our streets, from our communities, from our homes. but if we are going to truly address the gun crisis, we need to be honest about why our country has failed to act sooner. the truth is the gun industry is making billions of dollars selling the weapons that are killing our children. and they are fighting tooth and nail to keep doing it. that is why i have launched an investigation into five leading gun manufacturers that sell assault weapons used in mass shootings. we need to know why these communities are marketing military weapons to civilians and how much they are profiting from the death of our children. of course, mass shootings are just one part of this crisis. we cannot forget gun violence is a steady drumbeat and so many of -- in so many of our towns and cities, especially in marginalized communities. black men make up more than half of all gun victims in the united states, despite making up less then 6% of the population. latinos are twice as likely to be killed by a gun, and four times as likely to be wounded by a gun as white americans. we need transparency into how guns are reaching the hands of criminals, which is why this committee has been working to identify the gun dealers that are selling the most guns used in crimes. including across state lines. today, the house is voting to pass common sense gun safety legislation, which is a crucial first step in addressing this crisis. i am particularly grateful this bill will include key provisions similar to a bipartisan bill i first introduced more than 10 years ago with the strong support of former chairman elijah cummings. my bill will make gun trafficking a federal felony, and strengthen penalties for purchasers, which will help stop the flow of guns into the hands of criminals. my goal for today's hearing is simple. i am asking every member of this committee to listen with an open heart to the brave witnesses who have come forward to tell their stories about how gun violence has impacted their lives. our witnesses today have endured pain and loss. and yet, they are displaying incredible courage by coming here to ask us to do our jobs. let us hear their voices, let us honor their courage. let us find the same courage to pass common sense laws to protect our children. i now recognize the distinguished ranking member mr. cromer for an opening statement. >> thank you, chairwoman maloney, and all of our hearts go out to the victims and the families in uvalde, texas and buffalo, new york. to those who are testifying before us today, there are no words to describe the horror you have faced and the deep anguish you feel. the american people grieve with you. as elected representatives in congress, it is our obligation to work to ensure these violent crimes and tragedies never happen again. americans of all backgrounds should be empowered to defend themselves against rising violence. the increased violence we have witnessed since the summer of 2020 is unacceptable. murders and aggravated assaults are all up. this is a trend we must reverse. we have recently witnessed several high-profile, senseless acts of murder and mayhem that has impacted all americans, including, tragically, our defenseless and innocent schoolchildren. we must respond to those haney is acts and provide justice -- heinous acts and provide justice for those families. at the same time, we recognize violence occurs in many of our communities on a daily basis, impacting americans across the united states from every background. too often, tragedies are politicized for partisan gain and we have seen many seek to leverage these crimes and their victims to push for radical left-wing policies or to get their campaigns to get elected. instead of rushing to score political points at the expense of our justice system working properly, we must learn from these senseless acts of violence, and take concrete action to reduce violence in the future. we owe it to the families of the victims. they deserve justice. and we owe it to the american people. we must and can prevent similar tragedies. we all want to live in a country where we can achieve our american dream without the threat of violence in our communities. we must work together to deliver sensible solutions to secure our schools, protect our most vulnerable among us and bring to justice those responsible for these heinous crimes. our local officials cannot defund our police, and our prosecutors cannot be soft on crime. i believe we must carefully consider the security posture of vulnerable targets sought out by evil people. we must ensure that every american has a safe environment in which to live their lives in peace. and that requires thinking creatively about solutions to harden our infrastructure, enforce our existing laws, and work to foster a culture that values conflict resolution and dialogue over violence. i strongly believe there is an important place for law-abiding gun owners to serve in protecting themselves, their families, and their communities from violence. our second amendment is an important tool in securing our individual rights to self-defense. knee-jerk reactions to impose gun control policies that seek to curtail our constitutional right to bear arms are not the answer. gun ownership is on the rise in america. people want to protect themselves and their families. we should commend all law-abiding gun owners to safely use, store, and carry those firearms, not vilify them, for blatantly political purposes. i also believe we must continue to empower our law enforcement officials to serve and protect our communities honorably. as i have said before, defund the police and soft on crime prosecution policies have been a failure across the board. efforts to divert violent criminals out of the criminal justice system have failed, leading to the victimization of the very communities those policies were promised to help. violent criminals should be in jail,, not back on the streets to reoffend and terrorize. we must recommit ourselves to pursuing justice and keeping violent criminals off our street. thank you, chairwoman maloney, and i yelled back. rep. maloney: gentleman yields back. i want to clarify that i support the second amendment. i support law-abiding gun owners. i don't support the lax gun laws that allow guns to get into the hands of criminals and unstable people. i now recognize the gentlelady from california, miss porter, for an opening statement. rep. porter: i represent a community in morning. less than one month ago, in laguna woods, a gunman locked the doors to the geneva presbyterian church and opened fire on my community's tightknit taiwanese congregation. this shooting was an undeniable tragedy. but understood it -- under different circumstances, it could have been an unimaginable massacre. unlike the shooters in uvalde and buffalo, the shooter here did not carry an assault rifle equipped with high-capacity magazines. he was armed with nine millimeters handguns that forced him to reload. that difference gave a hero, dr. john chang, a chance to stop the carnage. he sacrificed his life to stop the shooter, and his bravery was remarkable. but we cannot depend on a hero's bravery to save lives. law enforcement has determined the gunman is ready to kill every person in the church. had he been armed with a military style assault rifle, he may have done so. there is no telling how many more lives would have been lost. shootings involving assault weapons are six times as deadly as shootings involving handguns. and when assault weapons are equipped with high-capacity magazines or bump stocks, the death toll rises even further. california has banned these weapons for years, our laws have saved lives. including members of geneva presbyterian church. congress must follow californians lead. i yield back. rep. maloney: the lady yields back and i recognize the gentleman from louisiana, mr. higgins, for an opening statement. rep. higgins: thank you, madam chair. it is a sober day as we reflect upon the challenges our nation faces. in 2005 as a young cop, i was dispatched to reports of a man down in the street. it was a part of the city that was crime-ridden and dangerous. i found the victim, a teenager, and i held the mortal wound in the back of his head, whispered prayer into his ear as his life flowed from his body. he died there in my arms on the street. he was killed by an ax handle. i am prayerful for america. i am prayerful for healing, and i am prayerful for discernment amongst this body and my colleagues as a law enforcement officer, i know what it means to swear an oath to protect and serve my community and my nation. and the importance of bringing justice to the families of those who suffer at the hands of people. and it is essential that the fundamental freedoms first amendment, are always protected and preserved by this body. i was sworn as a man, i swore an oath to uphold the constitution of the united states and i will never back down from defending that constitution including the rights of law-abiding americans to keep and bear arms. madam chair, i thank you for this hearing today and i yield. rep. maloney: the gentleman yields. now we will introduce our witnesses. i would like to turn it over to the gentleman from new york, this or higgins, to introduce our first witness. mr. wiggins is authorized to participate in today's hearing, he represents buffalo, and you are now recognized, mr. higgins. >> thank you, madam chair. and ranking member, the honorable members of the oversight reform committee. the greek tragic poet aeschylus says that we suffer our way to wisdom. he says we suffer our way to wisdom. to live is to suffer, to endure the suffering is to give meaning to the suffering. we have a problem in this country, unless we learn from the tragic events of the last three weeks, who are we as people -- as a people? this brave group of panelists from two cities that were devastated with destruction beyond human comprehension, we have to find a way to deal with this. in buffalo, the shooting started at 2:30 in the afternoon and was concluded in two minutes and three seconds. one shooter, a semi automatic weapon, 13 people shot, 10 dead, one shooter. if you look for a common denominator in all of these, it is typically someone that should never have had a gun with a high-capacity weapon to kill as many people as quickly as possible. stand anna evan hart is here. she is a friend and a proud citizen of the city of buffalo. zeneta is with us today as the mother of a buffalo mass shooting survivor, zaire goodman. zaire was working at the tops friendly market that was targeted by a white supremacist racist, deranged gunman. zaire is also a colleague in government. she is the director of diversity and inclusion for my friend and colleague, new york state senator tim kennedy. zeneta's story is both tragic and magic. with that, it gives me great honor to present to the committee, zeneta everhart. zeneta: thank you -- rep. maloney: thank you. after ms. everhart will hear from doctor roy guerrero who is a pediatrician in uvalde, texas . then we will hear from miah cerrillo, a fourth grader at robb school in texas. miah will be sharing her experience any pre-recorded video. her father is with us in the ring today and will be making brief remarks after his daughter's video, then he will excuse himself. next, we will hear from felix and kimberly rubio who are the parents of lexi rubio who tragically lost her life in the texas shooting. and now recognize the taliban from georgia, mr. heise, to introduce our last witness on this panel. rep. hice: thank you, might him chair. it is my honor to recognize lucretia hughes. she is part of my constituency, an incredibly bright light in our 10th district. she has an extremely compelling story. i just wanted to publicly recognize krisha. i want to thank you for being here today. i know it is hard to share the story that you come to us with, but we are grateful that you are here. and madam chair, i want to say thank you for these few seconds to recognize lucretia hughes and welcome her here. i yield. rep. maloney: thank you. the witnesses will be on muted so we can swear them in. please raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. thank you. without objection, your written statements will be made part of the record. with that, miss everhart, you are right big nice for your tech -- you are recognized for your testimony. please testify, miss everhart. >> thank you, chairwoman. zaire goodman, my son, or as i like to call him, the kid was , shot and injured by a domestic terrorist on saturday, may 14, 2022 at the tops grocery store where he was an employee and -- in a historically black community on jefferson avenue in buffalo, new york. zaire, the kid, is now a 21-year-old man. he is pure joy. he's everything that is good in this world. and as i sit here before you today, i can hear my son telling me to stop being extra and get to the point. i was going to tell you all a bunch of fluffy funny stories about zaire. but i have a message. so i will get to the as director point. of diversity and inclusion stories of gun violence and racism are all-too-familiar now -- but now these stories are zaire's stories. these problems literally knocked on my front door. these are issues that as a country, we do not like to openly discuss. domestic terrorism exists in this country for three reasons. america is inherently violent. this is who we are as a nation. the very existence of this country was founded on violence, hate, and racism, with the near annihilation of my native brothers and sisters. my ancestors brought to america through the slave trade were the first currency of america. let me say that again for the people in the back. my ancestors, the first currency of america, were stripped of their heritage and culture, separated from their families, bargained for or auction block, sold, being raped and lynched. yet, i continuously hear after every mass shooting that this is not who we are as americans as -- and as a nation. hear me clearly, this is exactly who we are. education. majority of what i've learned about african-american history i did not learn until i went to college and i had to choose those classes. why is that? why is african-american history not part of american history? african-americans built this country from the ground up. i ancestors blood is embedded in the soil. we have to change the curriculum in schools across the country so we may adequately educate our children, reading about history is crucial to the future of this country. learning about other cultures, ethnicities, and religions in schools should not be something that is up for debate. we cannot continue to whitewash education, creating generations of children to believe that one race of people are better than the other. our differences should make us curious, not angry. at the end of the day, i bleed, you bleed, we are all human. that awful day that will now be part of the history books, hopefully, let us not forget to add that horrific day to the curriculum that we teach our children. guns. the 18-year-old terrorist who stormed into my community armed with an ar-15, killing 10 people and injuring three others, received a shotgun from his parents for his 16th birthday. four zaire's 16th birthday, i bought him a few video games, a headphone -- headphones, pizza, and a cake. we are not the same. how and why? what in the world is wrong with this country? children should not be armed with weapons, parents who provide their children with guns should be held accountable. lawmakers who continuously allow these mass shootings to continue by not passing stricter gun laws should be voted out. to the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws, let me paint a picture for you. my son zaire has a whole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg. caused by an exploding bullet from an ar-15. as i clean his wounds, i can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. now, i want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. this should not be your story or mine. as an elected official, it is your duty to draft legislation that protects zaire and all the children and citizens in this country. common sense gun laws are not a -- not about your personal feelings or beliefs. you are elected because you have been chosen and are trusted to protect us. but let me say to you here today, i do not feel protected. no citizen needs an ar-15. these weapons are designed to do the most harm in the least amount of time. on saturday, may 14, it took a domestic terrorist two minutes to shoot and kill 10 people and injured three others. if after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today does not move you to act on gun laws, i invite you to my home to help me clean zaire's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and my community. to the families of ruth whitfield, pearl young, heyward patterson, geraldine talley, andre mackneil, margus morrison, i promise their deaths will not be in vain. zaire and i promise to use our voice to lift their name will -- names and we will carry their spirit with us as we embark on this journey to create change. i know that their collective souls watched out for zaire that day and i am eternally grateful to them for that. to the east side of buffalo, i love you. i'm speaking directly to my people, to my hood. from bailey to broadway, to kensignton to fillmore, to jefferson and every street in between, just like the potholes that we want filled in, yes, i keep it real, we will continue to fill the streets with love. no matter what people say about the east side of buffalo. we will not be broken. i was born there, raised their. i raised my son there, i still live there, and i do the majority of my professional work on the east side of buffalo. i vow to you today that everywhere i go i will make sure the people here the real stories of our people. for too long our community has been neglected and starved as a resources that we so greatly need. i promise i will not stop pushing for more resources to be funneled into the side of -- the east side of buffalo. each and every person that lives within that community we are family. not a perfect community, but i know that we are loved. with a -- to the greater buffalo area, to everyone around the country in the world who have reached out and loved on us, on behalf of zaire, his father, my mother, my father, my sisters, my brothers, and myself, we thank you. we thank you for all of your thoughts in your prayers. thank you for all the love and support you have shown us during this difficult time. but i also say to you today, with a heart full from the outpouring of love that you also freely gave us, your thoughts and prayers are not enough. we need you to stand with us in the days, weeks, months, and years to come and be ready to go to work and help us to create the change that this country so desperately needs. and i will end with the quote from the book "the devil we know." "raised as we have come to understand it is a fiction. but racism as we have come to live it is a fact." the point here is not to impose a new racial hierarchy, but to remove an existing one. after centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy, it is to me that it has fallen to black people to do it themselves. and i stand at the ready. zaire, this is for you, kid. happy birthday. rep. maloney: thank you. dr. guerrero, you are recognized for your testimony. >> thank you. thank you, chairwoman. my name is dr. roy guerrero. i am a board certified pediatrician and was president at uvalde memorial hospital. the day of the massacre at robb elementary school, i was called here today as a witness, but i showed up because i'm a doctor. because how many years ago i swore an oath, an oath to do no harm. after witnessing firsthand the carnage of my home town of uvalde, to stay silent would have betrayed that oath. an action is harm. passivity is harm. delay is harm. so here i am, not to plead, not to beg or convince you of anything. but to do my job and hope that by doing so, it inspires the member of this house to do there's. i have lived in uvalde my whole life. i attended robb elementary school myself as a kid. as often is the case with us grown-ups, we remember a lot of the good and not much of the bad. i don't recall homework or detention. i remember how much i loved going to school. what a joyful time it was. back then, we were able to run between classrooms with ease to visit our friends. i remember the way the cafeteria smelled on hamburger thursdays. it was around lunchtime on a tuesday that the gunman entered the school, through the main door, without restriction, massacred 19 students, and changed the way every student at rob and their family remember that school forever. i doubt they will remember the smell of the cafeteria or the laughter ringing in the hallways. instead, they will be haunted by the memory of screams and bloodshed, panic and chaos, parents wailing. i know i will never forget what i saw that day. for me, that day started like any typical tuesday, moms calling for coughs, sports physicals, right before the summer rush. school was out in two days, then summer camps would guarantee some ankle sprains. injuries that could be patched up and fixed with a mix it -- with a mickey mouse sticker. then at 12:30, business as usual stopped and with it, my heart. my colleague from a trauma center texted me and said, why are pediatric surgeons and anesthesiologists on call for a mass shooting in uvalde? i raced to the hospital to find parents outside, yelling children's names in desperation and sobbing as they beg for any news related to their child. this mother's cries will never get out of my head. as i entered the chaos, the first casualty i came across was a woman sitting in the hallway, her face was clearly in shock but her body was shaking from the adrenaline coursing through it. the shirt she wore was covered in blood in her shoulder was bleeding. miah, i have known her my whole life. as a baby, she survived major liver surgeries against all odds and once again, she is here as a survivor, inspiring us with her short story today and her bravery. when i saw miah sitting there, i remember seeing her parents outside. after examining her and other patients of mine in the hallways, i raced outside to let them know that miah was alive. i was not ready for the next urgent question. where is elena? she is her eight-year-old sister who was also there at the time of the shooting. i heard from the shootings that there were two dead children who had been moved to the surgical area of the hospital. as i made my way there, i prayed that i would not find her. i did not find elayna. but what i did found -- find was something no prayer will ever relieve. two children whose bodies have been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated his flesh -- whose flesh had been ripped apart. the only clue their identity was a blood spattered karting still clings than playing for life and finding none. i could only help these two bodies were tragic exception to the list of survivors. as they -- as i waited there with my fellow doctors, first responders and hospital staff for other casualties we hoped to save, they never arrived. all that remained was the bodies of 17 more children and the two teachers who cared for them, who dedicated their careers to nurturing and respecting the awesome potential every single one just as we doctors do. i'll tell you why became a -- why i became a pediatrician. because i knew children were the best patients. they accept the situation as it is explained to them. you do not have to coax them into changing their lifestyles in order to get better or plead with them to modify their behavior as you do with adults. no matter how hard you try to help an adult, their path to healing is always determined by how willing they are to take action. adults are stubborn. we are resistant to change, even when the change will make things better for ourselves. but especially when we think we are immune to the fallout. why else would such little progress be made in congress to stop gun violence? innocent children all over the country today are dead because law and policies allows people to buy a weapon before they are legally old enough to buy a pack of beer. they are dead because restrictions have been allowed to lapse. they are dead because there's no rules about where guns are kept because no one is paying attention to who is buying them. the thing i can't figure out is whether our politicians are failing us out of stubbornness, passivity, or both. i said before that as grown-ups, we have a habit of remembering the good and forgetting the bad. never more so when it comes to her guns. once the blood is rinsed away from the bodies of our loved ones and scrubbed off the floors of the schools and supermarkets in churches, the carnage from each scene is erased from our collective conscious and we returned to nostalgia. to the second amendment as a perfect instrument of american life, no matter how many lives are lost. i chose to be a pediatrician. i chose to take care of children , keeping them safe from preventable diseases i can do. keeping them safe from bacteria and brittle bones i can do. but making sure our children are safe from guns, that is the job of our politicians and leaders. in this case, you are the doctors and our country is the patient. we are lying on the operating table riddled with bullets look the children of robb elementary and so many other schools. we are bleeding out and you are not there. my oath as a doctor means i signed up to save lives. i do my job. and i guess it turns out that i am here to plead, to beg, to please, please do yours. rep. maloney: thank you. we will now play the video from miah. miah: my name is miah cerrillo. i go to robb elementary. she told us to go hide, so we went to go hide behind the teacher's desk, and behind the backpacks. then he shot through the window, and he went to the other classroom. and then he went -- there is a door between our classroom, and he looked in there and shot my teacher, who was shot in the head. then he shot some of my classmates and the whiteboard. he went to the back, and he shot my friend. i thought he was going to come back to the room. i got blood and put it all over me. >> why did you put blood on yourself? >> i stayed quiet. >> what did you tell 911? >> i told her that we needed help and to send the police to the classroom. >> is there something that you what people to know about that day and about you what would you want different what would it be? [inaudible] >> do you feel safe at school? why not? >> because i don't want this to happen again. >> think this is going to happen again? rep. maloney: mr. cerrillo you are now recognized. >> hello. today i come because i could have lost my baby girl. she is not the same little girl i used to play with and do everything because she was daddy's little girl. i have five kids and she is the middle child. i don't know what to do because i think i would have lost my baby gir. my baby girl is broke not only once, but twice. she came back to us. she is everything not only for me but for her siblings and her mother. i think for letting me be here and speak out but i wish something would change. not only for our kids, but every single kid and the world because schools are not safe anymore. something needs to really change change. thank you. rep. maloney: thank you for your testimony. and i understand you are now leaving. we thank you for sharing your story. thank you. you are now recognized for your testimony. >> i am can, we are the parents of alexandria anaya, best known as lexi rubio, and five other children who all attended uvalde elementary school. alyssa completed high school this year. isaiah, who attends uvalde high school. david, at junior high. and her two youngest children. who are at robb elementary. on the morning of may 24, 2022 i dropped lexie and julian off at school a little after 7:00 a.m., my husband and i returned to the campus at 8:00 a.m. for julian's award ceremony and again at 10:30 a.m. for lexi's award ceremony. lexi received the good citizen award and was also recognized for receiving all a's. at the conclusion of the ceremony we took photos with her before asking her to pose for a picture with her teacher. that photo, her last photo everett -- ever, was taken at approximately 10:54 a.m. to celebrate, we promised to get her ice cream that evening, told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. i can still see her walking with us toward the exit. in that real that keeps growing -- scrolling across my memory, she turns her head to smile at us to acknowledge my promise and then we left. i left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life . afterwards, i was dropped off at my office, and returned home because it was a rare day off for him between normal shifts and security gigs he takes to help make ends meet. i got situated at my desk began writing about a new business in town when the news office start -- a started hearing commotion on the police scanner, shooting on diaz street near robb elementary. it was not long before we received word for my son's teacher they were safe, secure in the classroom. once evacuated from campus the children were reunited with parents and guardians. my dad picked up julian from the center and took him to my grandmother's house. one of our robb kids was sick. we focused on finding lexi. but bus after bus arrived, but she was not on board. we heard there were children at the local hospital so we drove over to provide her description, she was not there. my dad drove an hour and half to san antonio to check with the university hospital. at this point some part of me must have realized that she was gone. in the midst of chaos i had the urge to return to robb. we did not have our car at this point. traffic was everywhere. so i and, i ran barefoot with my flimsy sandals in my hand. i ran a mile to the school with my husband with me. we sat outside for a while before it became clear we would not receive answers from law enforcement on scene. a firefighter eventually gave us a ride back to the civic center where the district was asking all families who had not been reunited with their children to gather. soon after we received the news , that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence. we don't want you to think of lexi as just a number. she was intelligent, compassionate and athletic. she was quiet, shy unless she had a wait to make. when she was right and she so often was. she stood her ground. she was firm, direct, voice unwavering. so today we stand for lexi. and it is her voice that we demand action. we seek a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines but we understand for some reason, to some people, to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns that guns are more important than children . so at this moment we ask the public we seek to raise the age to purchase these weapons from 18 to 21 years of age. we seek background checks, we also want to repeal gun manufacturers liability and immunity. we have all seen -- you have all seen glimpses of who lexi was but i also want to tell you a little bit about who she would have been. if given the opportunity, lexi would have made a positive change in this world. she wanted to attend st. mary's university in san antonio, texas on a softball scholarship. she wanted to major in math and gone to attend law school. that opportunity was taken from her. she was taken from her. i am a reporter, a student, mom, a runner, i read to my children since they were in the womb. my husband is a law enforcement officer. an iraq war veteran, he loves fishing and our babies. somewhere out there, there is a mom listening to our testimony thinking i cannot even imagine their pain. not knowing that our reality will one day be hers. unless we act now. thank you for your time. time. >> thank you for your testimony. ms. hughes you are now recognized for your testimony. >> honorable chairwoman maloney, ranking member kober, distinguished members of a committee thank you for allowing me too be here today to address the violence in our country. my name is lucretia hughes i have four children and nine grandchildren. on the night of april 2, 2016 my family got a phone call that would change our lives forever. my ex-husband answered the phone and let out a bloodcurdling scream, a scream of pain from the depths of his soul. he screamed, he cried, he is gone, he is gone. our 19-year-old son emmanuelle, went to a party early that night, after we got the call we was frantically called his phone, no one answered. we called even the police, i went to facebook and i had to ask is my son dead? i found out he was shot point-blank in the head and killed while playing dominoes. no one spoke up for weeks and the killer was on the run. no one was going to snitch. but that is the street life. words cannot describe how hard it is to bury a child. i ache for anyone and all who have done the same. my son's death was a result of a criminal with an evil heart and a justice system failing to hold him accountable for the laws he had already broken. you see it, a convicted felon killed my son. with an illegally obtained gun. a our gun control lobbyists and politicians claimed their policies will save lives and reduce violence. well, those policies did not save my son. the laws being discussed are already implemented in cities across this country. we have decades of evidence, proving they do not work. st. louis, new york, chicago, washington, atlanta, are gun-control utopias and they are plagued with the most violence. denmark lost 20 more, 1000 more won't make what has already illegal more wrong or stop criminals from committing these crimes. and you all are delusional if you think it's going to keep us safe. i am a walking testimony of how the criminal justice system and they gun-control laws, which is steeped in racism by the way, have failed the black community by the age of 25 i had already went to 18 young black men's funeral, at the age of 25. i have a one black man in jail, one black man in the grave and my young grandson is going to be raised without a father. and it is a curse on the black community and everyone else. something has to change. thoughts and prayers and calls for more gun control is not enough. how about letting me defend myself from evil? you don't think i am capable and trustworthy to handle a firearm. you don't think that the second amendment doesn't apply to people that look like me? you who call for more gun control are the same ones that are calling to defend the police. who is supposed to protect us? we must prepare to be our own first responders. to protect ourselves and our loved ones. i am a legal law abiding citizen. and i do not need the government to save me. i teach people how to use a firearm. i empower others to look at me too understand the second amendment is their right. i am a proud member of the d.c. projects. a women for gun rights. we believe that education is the key to safety. not an effective legislation. we support meaningful solutions that will actually save lives. we support the safe student act hr 7415 which would immediately make schools safer. in hindsight of parkland without failure of the government at every level failing the students. students saw something and they said something. and the school did not act. police were called to his residence over 30 times and they did not act. and finally, the police did not go to the school that fateful day and failed to protect those kids. we need to secure our schools and we have got to secure this building like you all do, what is the difference? we call on congress to ban gun free zones. fund non- partisan firearm education programs like kids essay foundation and non- governmental organizations like hold my gun. and in closing, i claim nothing in these bills do anything to make us safer or address the mental health crisis in this country. despite living with the heartache of losing my son on a daily basis, i believe it is our god-given right to defend ourselves from any act of violence. making it more difficult or even more expensive for me and people that look like me and other law-abiding citizens will not make us safer. it will embolden the criminals. gun owners are not the enemies and these gun control policies are not the solution. thank you, thank you. >> thank you, thank you all for your powerful and meaningful gut wrenching testimony. we will now pause as you are excused. we will pause always seek the next panel for their testimony. [background noises] he. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] >> senators have reached a bipartisan legislation on a gun legislation. it will expand mental health services, funding for school safety resources, and allow surges of juvenile records going back on track -- searches of juvenile records going back on background checks. following the announcement, president biden said that the agreement does not do everything i think is needed but it reflects steps in the right direction. this legislation comes after two mass shootings in buffalo and texas. for more on congress' efforts go to c-span.org or our free video app. >> tonight on q and a, a recent advancement in space exploration. the image of the star, a supermassive black hole at the center of the milky way. >> we are in orbit around the black hole, it was something we had been moving to see but also the entire globe look at this image. >> jessica weiside on the perseverance rover and the search for life on mars. >> if we do find life on mars, if life is sustained on both planets, there is implications that all life on earth actually came from mars, that is the earthlings are actually martians and vice versa. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and a. listen to q and a and all of our podcasts on our free app. this week, the senate continues work on a bill that will expand health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to carpet -- toxic chemicals and addressing supply chain issues. the committee continues their work on the attack on the capitol. on wednesday, live on c-span3, and thursday at 1:00 eastern on the suspenct now mobile video app and on c-span.org, we will have covered of other committees throughout the week. on tuesday, the

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