Transcripts For CSPAN2 Highland Park Mayor Testifies On Access To Assault Weapons 20220722

For the so many people from eleanor and Highland Park area. Im sorry we have to gather in this room for this purpose, but i salute you for your commitment, civic commitment and commitment w to sanity when it to laws of this country. I want to show some pictures. You will recognize them. This is aiden mccarthy, two years old. On the morning of the fourth of july, 16 days ago, aden and his parents kevin and irina went out to celebrate Independence Day as a family. They stop by their hometown parade of Highland Park. Shortly after 10 14 a. M. , aidan lost both of his parents. It happened when 21yearold gunman with a military style ar15 rifle began shooting. His father kevin used his body as a shield to protect aden. Kevin and aden mother was killed by gunfire. When shooting stopped aden was found wandering along the parade routeen with his fathers blood smeared on his leg. About this from mayor rotering when i called her after hearing the news that you talked about aden, the little boys they were still trying to identify. As of the photo is cooper roberts, eight years old. He was at the parade that day with his twin brother, and a bullet severed his spinal cord. We pray that he will recover. But for the time being he is battling paralysis from theuf waist down and is undergone at least seven surgeries as result of injuries, including one to reclosable wound in his esophagus. His twin brother luke had betrayed for shrapnel wounds to one of his legs. My heart is broken for these little boys and for the families and all the families mourning their loved ones and struggling to recover from this unspeakable act. Our nation was still reeling from the horrific Mass Shootings in buffalo, new york, and uvalde, texas, when the horror came to Highland Park the fourth of july. 83 rounds fired in less than 60 seconds. The gunman had perched himself on a rooftop and used a smith wesson semiautomatic assault ar15 variety, and three, 30 round highcapacity magazines to commit this massacre. He killed seven people. The names are katherine goldstein, kevin and irina mccarthy, jacquelyn sundheim, stephen straus, nicolas toledozaragoza, and eduardo uvaldo. Dozens more were injured, many are still hospitalized. Thousands experienced a trauma that day that will be with them forever. The attack in Highland Park was the 309th mass shooting in america this year. There h have been 47 more mass shooting since the fourth of july. This is a crushing number when you consider its reflection on life in america, and it is disgraceful that we have done so little to stop it. Too often the weapons that are used our military style assault weapons designed to kill large numbers of people in the matter of seconds. My colleague and the other senator from illinois senator duckworth will speak to the issue with her own special personal knowledge of it. I would like to turn to a short video that shows the threat our community face wendys war weapons, one of which was turned loose on Highland Park. He indiscriminately fired at the crowd and struck people at random. Stopping to reload his rifle similar to this one seen here twice. Texas rampage comes ten days after another shooting massacre at a supermarket in buffalo, new york,. Another mesh shooting this time at a church in california on sunday. There are at least three Mass Shootings in this country, 212 this year this year. In many parts of the u. S. You will have to be 18 to purchase weapon of work, and assault style rifles like the ar15. The style of weapon used in many Mass Shootings including the ones in sandy hook, las vegas and uvalde. Waffle house ar15. Buffalo ar15. Boulder, orlando, aurora, colorado, midland and odessa, the seneca, tree of life synagogue, Sutherland Springs, ar15. Thats how fast so much can shoot 30 rounds, one magazine, from an ar15. Those bullets from highpowered rifle have a velocity of summer around 3000 ft. s. I am an emergency room doctor. I can tell you firsthand that damage from ar15 bullet is almost indescribable. It creates gaping holes. It liquefies organs. You cant hunt with an ar15 and eat the dread afterwords. And thats what the surgeons and the doctors and First Responders are facing when they are dealing with these mass shooting victims. They are weapons of t war. Why do we allow our citizens to have such easy access to weapons of war . This is the tenth hearing te Senate Judiciary committee has held this Congress Come how to reduce gun violence in america, the tenth. Today well discuss the threat our community face when civilians as young as 18 years ofe age have easy access to military style assault weapons like ar15s and no legal requirement for training. How did we get to this point . What why are these killing ms flying off the shelves after they were banned for a decade until 2004 . Maybe it is the ads that market the assault weapons, symbols of independence, freedom, or the promise that owning an ar15 style gun will make you more of a man. Or could it be the enticing prospect of toting around the same style of weapon the soldiers and marines used to defend our country and combat . These are the Marketing Tactics used by gun manufacturers like mossberg, bushmaster, daniel defense. Its time to name and shame these companies. Its a disgrace that they have been shielded from accountability, even liability, for a a devastation that is been by their products. I called them out on the senate floor last week and will do it again. These weapons are killing our kids and our neighbors. In america this land of the free you can no longer go to the Grocery Store, a movie theater, a fourth ofan july parade or sed your kids to School Without fear of falling victim to another senseless mass shooting. I want those of lost so much to gun violence to know that i hear you, icu, i stand with you in this fight for real change that goes beyond thoughts and prayers. Governor pritzker made a comment after the shooting in Highland Park which reflected the feelings all of us had. Heartbroken for the victims and families, but furious that a fourth of july parade could turn into a killing field in the United States of america. I want to salute some progress. In the last few weeks would pass the most significant federal gun safety law in nearly three decades. We have also confirmed in atf director foror the first time in seven years, seven years. We have got to do more. If we are serious about reducing gun violence we need to keep weapons of war where they belong, on the battlefield, in the Police Departments here not in our communities. Today we have distinguished panel of witnesses ready to make that case and i look forward to their testimony. Let me turn to senator grassley before recognizing my collie. Senator grassley. For all of us it was tragic year about the recent shootings in Highland Park july 4. Just like buffalo, uvalde, other places throughout the country, senseless acts of violence have no place in our country, particularly on on a day whee should be celebrating our community and solidarity as a people. On a day when we should be celebrating our community, in solidarity as people. Our hearts break for victims and the families. As a father and grandfather, i cant imagine what you are going through. Sadly we witnessed another shooting in indianapolis over the weekend. Thankfully, a lawfully Armed Civilian with firearms stopped the shooter before more harm could be done. The gunman and Highland Park shooting was 21 years old. Held a valid illinois firearm owners identification card, he legally purchased five guns in four different transactions, passing federal background checks each time. Yet, like several other mass shooters, this perpetrator showed numerous warning signs over the years. He had previous contacts with police, he attempted suicide. A Family Member reportedly threatened to quote unquote, kill everyone. And his collections of knives were seized, yet he was not arrested, and no red flags were implemented when he purchased a firearm. Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. But that didnt stop these murders. A young man was showing obvious signs that he is considering violence. But no one knew what the signs were. No one knew when his actions meant. No one interceded. No one stopped him. He would be easy to say that system just failed. That the police should have done more, his family should have done more. But there actually is something that would have made a difference. We have to educate the institutions in a persons life about these obvious signs of distress. These obvious signs that a person is heading towards mass violence. Schools in many states have implemented threat assessment models, but more institutions, including churches, workplaces, want to need training. We need to take affirmative steps on legislation for threat assessment, and prevention services. A study of hundreds of mass shooting incidents, conducted by two professors, show eerie similarities, repeated over and over, that arent always recognized. I know every member of this committee has heard me talk about, gets tired of me talking about the eagles act. That is named after the parkland, florida killing. Eagles was their school mascot. I first introduced this bill in 2018, it ought to be very non controversial. This legislation would provide funding to support secret Service National threat Assessment Centers efforts to conduct Cutting Edge Research into the prevention of violence. It would also enable the National Threat Assessment Center to create more of our nations schools and institutions in conducting threat assessments. And early intervention. Eagles is a vitally missing case that we have to implement if we want to reduce these Mass Shootings. We cannot afford not to do it. We cannot keep seeing a shooter after shooter follow the same productive predictable past, with nobody doing anything about it. It could be because they did not know what they were looking at. They did not know what to do. We have to fill this information gap with public education, right now the National Threat Assessment Center cannot afford to train everyone who wants this information. That has to change. I am pleading for that to change. I am not alone in these thoughts. Eagles is cosponsored by ten of my fellow senators representing both political parties. I will also base admitting a statement from the United States the secret Service Association supporting this legislation. I know many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to not like guns. Some are not particularly oppressed by the appeals of americans who desperately worry that one size fits all gun control will impede their right to selfdefense. I have spoken with many who are worried about restrictions on their right to selfdefense. I will be submitting, for the record, statements from the Asian Pacific Gun Owners Association and a Family Member of one of the victims from the shooting in Highland Park. Both were very concerned about restrictions being imposed on their right to self defend. For those who see no need for an armed citizen ray, they solution to Mass Shootings could include a ban on assault weapons. This has already been tried in the 90s and early 2000s. I did not support it then. These bands would be ineffective and non consistent with the right of selfdefense. 2004 department of justice study concluded that after ten years of assault weapons bans there was no statistically significant evidence that banning assault weapons reduced gun murders. We also know restricting gun control will hurt vulnerable communities that need to defend themselves against the horrible spite and Violent Crime that began two years ago. According to the National Shooting sports foundation, they primary trade association from the gun industry and gun sales during the first half of 2020 increased year over a year 52 for whites, 59 for African Americans, 49 for hispanics, 42 to 43 for asians. These numbers continue to grow and restricting gun control only affects lawabiding citizens and will affect this new population of gun owners. Hs based on evidence that respects the need for selfdefense. There are bipartisan things we can do and i hope the eagles act will be one of them. I hope that will be very soon. I yield. Thank you, senator grassley. I want to acknowledge and i am sure i am going to miss someone in this incredible turnout on behalf of Highland Park, lake county, and illinois. I want to acknowledge the presence of state representative bob morgan. County sheriff john idol burke, the states attorney from lake county, eric reinhart, Daniel Shapiro who i met with earlier. Sandy heart, lake county board chair, and catherines islam, i hope i got close to pronouncing your name correctly from north brook. Lauren beth gauge, and i know the mayor will be here in just a moment. We will have to opening statements, one from senator duckworth and another from senator cornyn. I will recognize senator duckworth first. Thank you, mister chairman. Mister chairman, Ranking Member grassley, thank you for holding todays very important hearing. It has been 16 days since Good Samaritans found two year old aided mccarthy lying bloodied and pinned beneath his unconscious father in the chaotic aftermath of a deadly mass shooting at Highland Parks fourth of july parade. Just a toddler, aidan had somehow lost one shoe and was down to just one blood soaked sock. As he kept asking for his mom and dad. Tragically, we learned that arena and Kevin Mccarthy were among the seven people murdered in what has become a uniquely american phenomenon. Mass murderers wielding weapons of war to inflict terror and death upon innocent americans. My constituents and yours, as well, mister chairman, were eager to celebrate america at her best. Instead, they joined a rapidly growing number of victims who have experienced our nation at her worst. I still cannot get the image of athens one bloodied sock out of my mind. I am unable to stop thinking about what his future holds now. Or what his parents final thoughts might have been as they shielded their son from bullets writing down with their own bodies. That is why im here this morning, as the senator representing eight, and i refused to let my colleagues ignore how a weapon of war forever changed this little boys life and the lives of so many others. And, as a mom raising two little girls who are attending school, i refused to do nothing in the face of a deadly epidemic of gun violence that is now the leading cause of death of young americans, let me say that now. The leading cause of death of americans under the age of 16 is a cancer, is not cant car accidents, it is gun violence. Only in america, i am urging this committee to demonstrate courage in supporting a ban on assault weapons at large pasty magazines, we cannot stop every mass shooting, they Ranking Member spoke about identifying those with Mental Health issues, i agree we should do all of that, there are predictable steps that he mentioned which is part of it. Part of those predictable steps also includes, unfortunately, in recent years, they purchasing or building of assault weapons. It does not change the simple fact, after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and the Ranking Member quoted the statistics from 2004 that said there had been no significant change as of 2004. However, since that ban was allowed to expire Mass Shootings in this country have tripled. We have more recent data, the data shows that Mass Shootings in this nation have tripled since the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire. I want to be clear, restoring the assault weapons ban would not prevent sportsman from continuing to access more than 2000 bottles of powerful hunting whales, we are not talking about your 30 of sixes, no mass shooter is going to grab a 30 ought six to conduct a mass shooting. They are grabbing ar15s, they are buying the lower assemblies and building their own weapons of war. It will not stop a parent from teaching their child to shoot with a 22 like my dad did with me when i was seven years old. I grew up shooting, i enjoyed going to the range, but my enjoyment of going to the range should not outweigh a childs right to life, to live the fray from the scourge of assault weapons. My focus is on reducing our streets of a rifle that eugene stone are literally designed to meet Army Requirements for use in combat, when he designed the ar15 it was de opted by the military to become the and 16 that i carried as my weapon of war for my 23 years as a soldier. Large capacity magazines also need to be banned. These are the items that are fueling the rising rates of Mass Shootings. The armor light rifle 15 and the semi auto successors it spawned our weapons of war, from their portability, accuracy, rate of fire, ability to penetrate body armor and ease of reloading, both the military issued and the four carbine and the civilian ar15 and its variants are functionally similar, and they are designed for combat, they lack of three around bursts or full auto mechanism does not mean it fully reduce the ar15 compared to the end for, whether it is a soldier engaging the money in combat, or an uncaring untrained mass murderer hunting children in a school, any shooter looking to efficiently and kill multiple people without wasting ammunition will prefer and semiautomatic rifle coupled with a detachable large capacity magazine that enables rapid reloading. It chambers the rounds that quickly, as quickly as you can pull the trigger is chambering a new round. Every senator on this committee should study what happens to a body when struck by a round traveling at a speed of greater than 3003 present. As an emergency room doctor said, it liquifies your organs. Liquifies them. You have no chance of survival. You just seek out emergency room doctors who can show you what happens when a round penetrates a human body and high velocity and tumbles around exploding tissues and exploring those vital organs. It is one thing to read in horror that the sandy hook and uvalde families had to wait hours to in the fate of their bodies. But, have each of you truly reflected on why the parents had to submit dna tests to identify their massacred and murdered children . Have you imagine how it would feel when authorities told you that you could not view the body of your murdered child, after a baby, because there was nothing left of your baby that you could use to visually identify them. Plays, could you submit some dna. I beg you to question here are some chants about whether weaponry designed for war should be marketed and sold to civilians, but i am asking this committee to do is not easy. But, our childrens lives are worth the fight, we all swore an oath to defend the constitution, which was established to ensure domestic tranquility, promote general welfare, and to hear the blessings of liberty for our sounds and for future generations. I was in the Emergency Operation center immediately following the shooting in Highland Park. Let me tell you, allowing corporations to flood our communities with weapons of war has made a mockery of that sacred preamble. On my way here i looked at anderson manufacturing in kentucky, where they are currently selling ticket for the lower parts, with pistol grip, middle speck for an ar15 for 59 99. This is what we are talking about. Manufacturers taking advantage and making a profit on dead babies. We sure did not secure the blessing of liberty from stephen straus, nicholas stiletto circus a, and reena and Kevin Mccarthy, or for the countless americans who were nowhere near Highland Park but will now think flat twice before bringing their child to a hometown july 4th parade, or the millions of students like my baby girl, miley, who i recently witnessed taking part in an active shooter struggle, i was at her school to talk about memorial day with her sisters class, i looked through the window and i saw the line of preschoolers walking down the hallway, and i watched, and my heart broke as i watched my little girl who was taught to crouch down, with her head against the wall, covering her head, with her hands in their secure location. Knowing full well that a shooter with an ar15 coming in there she would not have a chance. No matter what her crouching position was. Americas heartbreaking new normal, where we were timely in grade in our children the traumatizing fear that at any moment they could be gunned down in their classroom, should not be acceptable to any one of us, we do not have to live this way. We can still hunt, we can still have an armed citizen or a, we can still go to the range and take our kids out and teach them target practice. We can do all of that without weapons of war. Weapons of war being available for 59 99, i am ready to restore the federal assault weapons ban and a bag every member of this committee to please, for the sake of all of our babies, join me in this effort, thank you i yield back. Thank you, senator, i know you have other things to attend for testimony today, yours was particularly impactful, particularly with the audience here and our constituents. Senator cornyn . Thank you, mister chairman. I am proud of the fact the United States Congress Responded to the voices of people across america following the recent shooting in uvalde, texas. He said, do something. Indeed, i believe theyre doing nothing was a dishonor, would be to dishonor those who want to thus to do something to deal with incidents like occurred in uvalde, and have occurred and you numerous are there places around the country. Along with senator tillis, i was one of the principal negotiators with senate senator, and senator murphy of the bipartisans communities act. I always thought the protested that legislation will be, will it save lives, and i believe it will. That i believe should be the test of any legislative action we take. In addition to focusing on the profile of some of the eliminated young men who lash out, not only committing suicide themselves, but taking the lives of others. We try to figure out how to get that people who are suffering from Mental Health crises, who none of us believe should have access to firearms. Indeed, under current law, someone with a Mental Health adjudication cannot pass a background check. Keeping guns out the hands of criminals. I believe that the Second Amendment, and good Public Policy are not mutually exclusive. And that is what we try to do in the bipartisan Safer Communities act. We also made the single largest investment in Community Based Mental Health care in american history. Something i believe that will save more young people who are going through Mental Health crisis, giving them access to treatment, counseling, medication, whatever it takes to help them live productive lives. And i believe the money that we invested in making our schools safer, will pay off. I dont think any parent ought to have to send their child to school, worried for their safety. I dont think any child should have to go to school worried about their safety. So i am proud of the work that we have dumb, and i am proud of the work that we have done before that in approving the background check system, the socalled brics next, National Background check system, following the Sutherland Spring shooting. But one thing i am unwilling to do is to erode the Constitutional Rights of lawabiding citizens. Lawabiding citizens are not going to commit these heinous acts. They are not going to commit crime. They are not going to be suffering from a Mental Health crisis, and lash, out and be a danger to themselves or others. And so i wonder about the focus on the firearm as an inanimate object. And then adamant objects wont cause harm to anyone. But it does, what does matter, if the person possessing that firearm, and certainly our focus has been keeping them out of the hands of people criminal records and people with Mental Health problems. One of the things i worry about, as the focus on the firearm that we have heard so far deflect our attention from other places where i think we could make a substantial difference. Things like focusing on the criminals, the committed 836 homicides last year in chicago alone. You know this came in the wake of the defund the Police Movement and the socalled ferguson effect. Where Law Enforcement officers were blamed job as opposed to the criminals that committed violent and illegal acts. I dont hear any commentary about the hundred and 8000 americans who died of drug overdoses last year alone. All of those drugs came across the southern border, virtually all of the drugs come across the southern border, and we have no border. The cartels i figured out how to flood the zone with migrants, and divert the attention, deflect the attention of Law Enforcement officers while the drugs for girls. And it is the criminal earrings in cities across america the commit most of the acts of violence using guns. Protecting their market share, their territory. Lashing out and killing innocent people. So i think, as horrific as these incidents are, one of the object lessons of what happened in Highland Park is, the strictest gun laws in the nation did not prevent this terrible act. And i think if we divert our attention from these other contributing factors to these terrible crimes bergeron, and terrible acts, that we are missing a possible solution to the problem. And i would finally just closed, mister chairman, thank you for your generous generosity and let me make the statement. It is not lost on me that and Sutherland Springs, stephen willard, this is a Little Baptist Church outside of san antonio, my hometown. In 2017, somebody was able to buy firearms illegally, because he had been convicted of a felony. Domestic violence, had been committed for Mental Health problems. Somebody who is disqualified from being able to buy a firearm, was able to buy one because the United States air did not upload that information into the background check system. With the person who saved lives that day was a man named stephen will furred. And again are a shooting instructor, who took his ar15 from his gun safe when he heard shooting at the southern springs and went down there and stop the shooter. We saw that happen again in indiana. Where he Good Samaritan was able to limit the damage the shooter was able to cause. Because these are lawabiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights. So i worry that, if our focus is simply on the instrumentality, on the firearm itself, and inanimate object to the detriment of these other contributing factors, that we will have missed the point. Maybe we will have stayed on our talking points, but it will not allow us to reduce the carnage that we are seeing in cities across the country, and regions across the United States. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank, you senator cornyn. The first panel of witnesses im going to welcome to the table in just a moment. We will have five minutes of testimony from each, and there will be open for questions from Members Committee at five minute rounds. So, i would ask if the witnesses on the first panel would all approach the table. If you could stand plays and raise your right hand. Do you swear in the testimony that youre about to give it to this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god. Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the affirmative. I will introduce a Majority Party witnesses and senator grassley will introduce the Minority Party witnesses. Our first witness is nancy rotary, no mayor of Highland Park illinois. She has served as chief executive of her city since 2011. She was at the Highland Park fourth of julys parade when her community was attacked. She has worked tirelessly to help coordinate the response and recovery, console grieving families, and help your community recover. Years later, mayor irving led to efforts to pass an ordinance banning military style assault weapons and Highland Park. An ordinance that was challenged in part by in court by the gun lobby, and was upheld by the Second Circuit court of appeals. Thanks for being with, us mayor rotary. Dr. Kailyn hunter is a senior Political Science at the rand corporation. She previously served as director of the strategy and Warfare Center the u. S. Air force academy. As associate director of the institute for future reflected and as a professor of military and strategic studies, dr. Hunter is in the marine corps combat that trend with multiple deployments to iraq and afghanistan, as an age one w super cobra attack pilot. Doctor hunter, thank you for your service to america, and we are glad to have you. Joseph blocker is a professor and codirector of the center for firearms law duke university. He has taught at duke since 2009, his scholarship focuses on the issues of gun rights. Before joining the dukes faculty, we he worked for the second 11 circuits, and practice law in with meyers eloped where he is dusted with the merits briefing for the district of columbia and district of columbia versus howler. Now well turn to senator grassley introduces witnesses. Mister chairman, i want to tell you that at 11 i have time on the floor to speak. I will come back and ask my questions later on. That is fine, thank you. Russell bentley is a Senior Analyst with safe haven international. The Worlds Largest nonprofit k through 12 School Safety center. Mr. Bentley has over 20 years of Law Enforcement experience, with 15 years in executive positions within Campus Police agencies. He is a 2001 graduate of the fbi national academy, and contributing author to the textbook extreme violence, understanding, and protecting people from active assailants. Hit, crimes and terrorist attacks. Thank you for being with us, mr. Bentley. My next person to introduce is philip p smith. The founder and president of the National African american gonna so ca shun, a group he created in 2015 with the mission of educating and training African Americans in firearm safety, sportsmanship, and lawful defensive spot firearm use. His association is a 48,000 active members. It is a Strong Organization with 127 chapters located throughout 39 states, and the district of columbia. Welcome to you. Thank you, senator grassley. I will first recognize my first witness. Nancy. Good morning, chairman durbin, Ranking Member grassley, and distinguished member of the Senate Judiciary committee. Thank you for inviting me to discuss how we stop Mass Shootings. My name is nancy rotering, i am the mayor of Highland Park illinois. And all american, midwestern town. I was at the Highland Park fourth of july parade shooting and i will be haunted forever. Before i tell you my story, and fire personnel who ran directly into danger to save lives. They did everything right. They miraculously caught the shooter within hours and they are what true american heroes look like. It was a perfect summer day, the excitement of 3000 parade goers was palpable, especially since this was our first parade in two years post pandemic. Festive floats, a sea of children and adults in red, white, and blue rigging american flags. The council and i kicked off the parade, music and cheering were all we could hear as we head down the street. I looked left, i waved to my husband in the crowd. When i did not know, at that moment, was that just to my right on a one story rooftop, a 21yearold was preparing to traumatized my hometown forever with an assault weapon. Shortly after weigh persuaded down the parade route, i turn to my colleagues and questioned why the marching band had stopped playing music, and was only playing the drum cadence. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. I then saw a sea of marching band members sprinting down the sidewalk. Some with two but still entwined around their bodies. I realize later the sound i have heard later was not drum cadence, it was a sound of an assault weapon. Myself phone buzz and a shooter on the roof of the local store had shot dozens of rounds into the parade crab. Fire and Police Vehicles were roaring towards us. We pivoted and started emergency evacuation. We were screaming run, shooter adults stared back, not comprehending. But the kids knew immediately, this was not a drill. They yelled to everybody, run and hide, they knew it was happening. Grandparents were rubbing from cover, toddlers are being placed in dumpsters for safety. The bodies of those who were hit were scattered on the ground. We now know that 22 year old Cassie Goldstein told her mom katie to run, but katie was hit in the chest and kathy had to tell her mother she loved her but she could not stop, because bullets were still flying. She kept running to safety, hiding behind a garbage can. When the shooting stopped, cassie returned to find her mother lifeless. Local doctors and volunteer Community Response teams tied to the severely wounded as paramedics arrived. The shooter was still at large. A photo of a theory i toddler clutching a blanket flashed on my phone. Whose child was this . People were hiding in an underground garage wondered when nobody was looking for this missing child. Later we learned it was twoyearold Aidan Mccarthy who had dried blood on his legs, socks, and sneaker. He was found under his fathers body and carry to safely. No one was frantically looking for him because no his mother and father had been murdered at the parade. The governor and i attended the funerals. We heard about jackies love of knitting and somebody else missing his summary of birthday. We learned how hot shrapnel melted into the arms and legs of his relatives. Stephen strauss widow asked was he unconscious, was he alone . The Police Commissioner stayed with him the entire time. Both of nicholass grandchildren attended on crutches. The impact of gunfire on their grandfather required a closed casket. Sitting with him at the parade, they experienced firsthand the gory effect this ammunition, with this velocity has when hitting a human head. Dr. Keith lee roberts left the hospital immediately after her own major surgery to be with her eightyearold son, cooper, who shredded esophagus, ripped liver, and severed spinal cord continue to threaten his life. His twin brother, luke, was shot in the leg. Liz three year old daughter was handed to strangers while liz was rushed to the hospital while a bullet pierced her pelvis. She has shrapnel in her leg and may never walk unassisted again. Less than a minute is all it took for a person with an assault weapon to shoot 83 rounds into a crowd, forever changing so many lives. The most disturbing part, this is the norm in our country. Highland park had the uniquely American Experience of a fourth of july parade turned into what has now become a uniquely American Experience of a mass shooting. How do we call this freedom . Other advanced nations live free of fear of gun violence, we know that Mental Health issues exist everywhere in our world. American mayors, and i have talked to several in these past few weeks, fear not if but when a mass shooting is going to hit their towns, what is different about the u. S. . The u. S. Has civilian access to assault weapons and large capacity magazines. That is the only differentiating factor, in 2013 in the wake of sandy hook we, as a city, banned large capacity magazines. We knew the federal ban will be most affective but the local band reflecting the values of our community was the only option under a law. Local governments cannot do this alone, Congress Must take action. You must federally man large capacity magazines, today is the day start saving lives. Thank you. Thank you, mayor rotering. Mr. Bentley . Check your microphone, sir. Thank you. Chairman durbin, Ranking Member grassley, the other honorable members of the judicial community, i appreciate your concern for School Safety and im grateful to have an opportunity to do my best to try to assist you in your efforts. My name is russell bentley, i am here on behalf of the Worlds Largest k12 safe schools center, Safe Havens International incorporated. Safe havens is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, Non Governmental Organization whose efforts have worked in all 50 states, u. S. Territories, and over two dozen countries. With the goal of having to make schools safer wherever students happen to live and attend school. Safe haven analysts have assisted the u. S. Department of education, justice, homeland security, and provided assistance to School Safety efforts of the administrations of president william clinton, president george bush junior, and president barack obama. As well as Government Agencies in canada, india, israel, poland, vietnam, and trinidad and tobago. To make schools safer for students in those who are dedicated their lives to educating them. I have been a school fulltime School Safety practitioner for more than 32 years. And, i have worked in k to 12 School Districts, face based, charter, and independent schools in over 30 states. My main message for you today is, while there are many things that can make schools safer, i would like to see greater access to, and utilization of, the immense, excellent, unparalleled School Safety resources that have been developed by a host of fellow Government Agencies over the past three decades. The u. S. Department of education, justice, moments a carrot, a United States equal service, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, the federal Law Enforcement training center. The u. S. Department of homeland security, cyber security, and infrastructure security agency. And, other federal agencies and departments that have worked tirelessly to develop what i feel is superb resources and programs available at no cost to our nations schools. Theyre in our School Safety security climate, culture, and emergency assessments, more than 8500 k to 12 schools, and our official post incidents assistance for 23 active assailant and targeted shootings in k12 schools, we have found that Many School Districts and nonpublic schools still lack some extremely effective, and important measures. One, particular is in my experience with student threat assessment and management. Working with School Social workers in the early 1990s, i was the deputy chief of school police. Our department developed what was likely the first multiple disciplinary threat assessment team, which helped to avert tragedies including a planned middle School Bombing by a deeply troubled student, who espouse nazi beliefs and desire to kill African American students. We had such success with this approach, and using federal grants, we formed intervention teams with School Social workers and School District police, working on patrol cars and each team. Since that time, multiple federal agencies and experts from various sectors have dramatically advanced students to the rest assessment and management processes. Unlike many other approaches, threat assessment management teams, Office Equipment protection regardless of the type of weapons use, the time of day, he location of the attack. They are protected and seen ploy ease in classrooms, lunchrooms, media centers, school grounds, school buses, and athletic events. While there many other things that can and to make our nation schools safer, i would urge you to do what you can to enable the National Threat Assessment Center of the secret service to build upon this incredible, important body of knowledge, and you can in the words of so many under the inspired leadership of both parties, and everybody center with Additional Resources to provide greater support to our nations public and non public schools. I have immense faith in the ability of the dedicated men, and women of the center, to improve our ability to prevent plan acts of school violence. Thank you for your service to our nation, and allowing me to share my thoughts with you today. Thank you, mr. Bentley, dr. Hunter. Thank you. It does not. Scene there we go. All right, chairman sherman, Ranking Member grassley, members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to testify today. Before i begin, i dont recognize the residents of Highland Park who are here with us in the audience. As a combat veteran, i want to acknowledge that the sounds and images you may have heard wouldve been very troubling, given your recent experience. And i thank you for your bravery staying in the audience through that. We owe it to the victims of gun violence, their families, and the American People, to ensure they can violence prevention policy is based on objective facts. Actionable solutions only come when we are willing to take a clear and look at the state of the science. And that includes looking at the role of assault weapons, are commonly called, modern sporting rifles. In Mass Shootings. Today, i will present to you what is known about these weapons, and their role in mass shooting events. So that you can make informed policy decisions that will keep our communities safer. I will do this by addressing three points. First, these weapons have an outsized impact on injury and death. Second, i will show it we know and can logically infer about the efficacy of assault weapons bans. And third, i will discuss why it is essential to ensure access to quality research. Assault weapons have an outsized impact on injury ended up. Thankfully, these weapons are used in the minority of firearm homicides. However, they are disproportionately used in Mass Shootings. Particularly public matthew tings, with the fbi has shown a rose by 50 from 2020 to 2021. When an assault weapon is used in one of the shootings, theyre more than 14 times more injuries, and twice as many deaths than when any other type of weapon is used. It is because these weapons are designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. As senator duckworth said, they are descendant of armor lies to air 15, design that was created in the 1950s, and adopted in the mid 1960s as the f16 service weapon. This weapon has been used by Service Members and every conflict since vietnam. I used them as a marine. And as a service weapon, they have several advantages. They are lighter weight, they are shorter, they have later bullets, they can do more bullets more quickly, and their bullets are designed to do damage to the human body, and even shoot through a standard issue military helmet. In short, it is a great service. Indeed, the very design of this firearm, and the benefit that it brings to this intended purpose, maybe responsible for its outsized impact on injury and death of Mass Shootings. Second, which is researching logic tell us . Studies on the impact of previous federal or current state assault weapon policies our view. So it is important that we use logical deductions to consider carefully the impact of these bands. While there is little evidence of the ban of assault weapons reduces the overland since a crime, knowing that they do result in larger levels of injury and death, given that we know this, we can infer that they will significantly reduce the number of entries and that. There is also research to show states with strong gun laws have lower levels of all types of gun violence. But states and localities, to include Highland Park, which has an assault weapons ban, are limited in their ability to protect their communities. There are no hard borders between cities or states, and limited trace data we do have, shows that weapons flow from areas of more permissive laws, two areas with more restrictive laws. Finally, the fact that we havelimited rigorous scholarship on the agatha sea of these bands, should not be taken to mean that these policies do not reduce injuries and death. But that there is just little available research. And a portion of this can be traced to the lack of federal investment in the inability of researchers to access essential data. The effort to prevent research on this topic has resulted in a lack of understanding, and discussions that devolve into partisan talking points, rather than a meaningful discussion of the facts. Between 1997, and 2019, federal funding of Gun Violence Prevention Research was virtually nothing. And over this 20year dearth of funding, gun policy has paul policy sciences been put behind or complex public Health Issues that we have Evidence Based Solutions for this country. Access to quality data, notably traced data from the atf, has also been stymied by the federal government. Enacting new gun laws requires a balance between public safety, and individual rights. Access to firearm trey status in essential tool to understand how guns get into the hands of criminals including mass shooters. Members of this committee have repeatedly called for laws that target prosecuting felons trying to buy illegal guns. And we know that one and three mass shooters are committed by an individual who is prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Yet we as researchers are unable to use trace data to study patterns and trends to help inform a supply side approach, the prevent criminals from accessing guns to include criminals on the other side of the border. And thereby, keep our Community Safer. We owe it to our fellow americans to make quality decisions based on what we know. We know that the presence of these weapons and i had some as shooters increases injury in that. If there is a decision to act, states in localities may be challenged to act on their own. And we know that the best way to make good policy, its to have good research, and the prohibitions on research continue to cost lives. Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, dr. Hunter. Mr. Smith can you hear me . Chairman, Ranking Member grassley, and a single verse of the committee. My name is philip t smith, and i am honored to testify today. As the president of a Firearms Organization, isnt needed National Conversation regarding firearms, and i appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it. A little bit about myself. I was born and raised in brazil california, graduated from the universe of california davis. Im married to my lovely wife glanced with a 20 years, and three kids. I am also a proud member of alpha file but fraternity. I and the president of the National African american got association. We are the largest African American Firearms Association is reUnited States and arm have over members with chapters and numbers in every state. We are pro today, pro constitutional carry, and pro black Firearms Organization with no apologies. We have grown tremendously and seven years with a diverse weight of folks joining. You name it, and we have that person with an organization. What is especially significant is the surge of black women joining. Yes, black women are coming. And they are coming in large numbers. Currently, they are the Fastest Group of new gun owners in the United States. And i am proud to say that they are the backbone of the National African american got association. Never before have this many black people in the United States had guns. It is estimated that at least 14 million, currently in for firearms in their homes. What is happening is that our community has awoken, and we are taking steps to protect ourselves legally. Today, at this hearing, i am representing the millions of black people in this country past and present, that have been unable to seize the opportunity to protect themselves through the Second Amendment. I will be their voice. I will be there defender. The history of black americans in this country as well documented. With slavery being a social and legal burden we had to fight. What is not known as there were laws called the black codes in 1865 that prevented black folks from owning any kind of firearm. If a black person was caught with a gun they could be killed, no questions asked, on the spot. The goal of these laws was to keep the black community under control, and defenseless. Today, in 2022 restricting american citizens from purchasing firearms has the same effect as the black codes of 1865. The end result is people, especially black folks, are unable to secure a gun, which leaves them vulnerable. To me that is unacceptable and unamerican. They will now allow millions of gun overs whose rights were restricted. Which crime has significantly larger impact on black communities. It is even more important we have the ability to defend ourselves exactly as the decision affirms. Focusing on banning rifles like the ar15 is an exercise in futility. It is in direct conflict with the Second Amendment, robs us of our right to use the best tools the misinformation about the ar15 is incredible with public figures making statements that have no truth or facts about the firearm. Let me demystify the firearm so we can be on the same page. The ar15 is not a fully automatic machine gun like used by the military. Its semi automatic, you pull the trigger once, one pulling comes out just like a pistol, just like a shotgun. Banning the ar15 will not have an impact on violence and its shown from the previous ban in the 90s. Bad people with bad intent will still have guns to cause harm to our most vulnerable americans, black americans. You cant pass laws to solve the human condition of violence or evil. We must look at the root cause of these shootings and that requires tough, Uncomfortable Conversations within our nation. Thank you for allowing me to address this committee and this serious subject matter in our country today. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Smith. Professor. Chairman durbin, chairman durbin and Ranking Member grassley, distinguished members. Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is joseph bloquer im at testifying here today purely in my individual capacity. Has it Committee Considers laws and policy from the risk and reality of devastating Mass Shootings like in Highland Park it does so in the wake of the new York Supreme Court decision. That case announced a new legal test governing new constitutional laws that states may pass, already on the pack, including the Highland Parks municipal assault weapons ban which survived an earlier Second Amendment challenge. How the bruin test will be critically important that the committee and the American People understand the new judicial framework. In my brief remarks i want to focus on two points in particular. The first is that Justice Thomas majority opinion adopts is new test for weighting the constitutionality of gun laws. Accord to go the court. Constitutionality addressed to address contemporary real World Problems will depend solely on whether they are in some sense consistent with historical tradition and not on whether they are effective in preventing serious harm. Properly applied, such a test should still uphold most modern gun laws because regulation of Deadly Weapons is part of the commonlaw tradition since before this nations founding. Historians have written volumes on the topic and the duke center law hosts, gun laws which has more than 1500 illustrative regulations. The courts new test opens the door to an enormous amount of judicial discretion because the court has done little to explain how were supposed to determine whether a modern law is relevant or similar to a historical one. Days within the decision there was a challenge of prohibition in the metro. Is the metro similar to the medieval fairs and markets where they were regulated. And similar questions will arrive in any number of Second Amendment cases. Are the ar15s similar to muzzle loading flintlocked muskets . And mr. Smith spoke of the reason to be skeptical of the historical record, prior generations disarmed groups, black americans, native americans and those who refused to take loyalty oaths. And drawing that historical record and channels will use judicious discretion and introduces substantial uncertainty and make the content of the Second Amendment law obscure to hundreds of millions of people whose lives are governed by it. Despite the methodology weakness, the court was striking down new yorks law and approved permitted forms of licensing and criteria for licenses. Concurring opinions by justices alito and kavanaugh, the latter joined by chief justice roberts, emphasized that properly interpreted the Second Amendment allows a potentially wide variety of gun regulations. In evaluating whether those laws are analogous to modern ones, courts will have to ask, as bruin says, whether they are relevantly similar, especially with respect to how and why they burden peoples ability to have guns. And to determine whether something is rell vently similar, not only permits, but, in fact, requires the kind of contemporary evidence that this committee is considering today. Its simply impossible as a matter of law and logic, to discover that without evidence to the former. And the Court Decision is problematic and disruptive to constitutional law, but its not the end of evidencebased gun policy or the work of this committee. Senator cornyn, you said that the Second Amendment and good policy is not always exclusive. That remains true after bruin. Thank you, professor blocher. The gun lobby sometimes maintains that to stop a mass shooting and then they can carry against the mass shooter. And the active shooter attacks since the year 2000 to see how many times bystander stopped a mass shooter, it happened 22 times out of 433 Mass Shootings. About 5 . 10 of those incidents, half of them, involved a bystander who happened to be a Security Guard or an off duty Police Officer. So it can happen though its pretty rare statistically and we must remember many states have concealed carry or open carry with no requirement of training whatsoever. My question to you is this, how much can we count on a good guy with a gun to stop a mass shooter when the mass shooter has an ar15 style weapon that can empty a 30round magazine. The guy with the gun would have had no impact on the shooter. Weve heard from hundreds of parade goers, and they all had hundreds 6 explanationings of where the shooting had come from. They could not identify even where the shooter was. The area where this took place. There were bullets ricochetting off of walls, there was a courtyard and we had good guys with guns on site who were trained who got there within seconds and it was just too hard to see where he was. We also know that these weapons and these bullets can pierce kevlar vests. I think the fact that we had less than a minute should tell anybody who thought that a good guy with a gun would have had an impact. The only thing that would have happened would have been more chaos and more carnage people shooting all over the place and that would have been a disaster in Highland Park. So technically, your police and Law Enforcement were outgunned by the shooter in Highland Park. They were and literally because it was so quick, they got there within seconds, but again, hundreds of people had hundreds of explanations. My own husband was right there. He thought the shooter had been on the street. He was right in the middle of it all. Everybody gave different stories. Professor, youve read the bruin opinion and i have as well. What does it say about potentially banning assault weapons or requiring official training in the weapon before you can own one . Nothing directly. The courts very clear that its ruling only on the legality of may issue public carry restrictions like the one that new york had in place and other populous states do, as well. The courts and the concurring opinions are very clear that the Second Amendment permits various storms of gun regulation, perhaps including or certainly those involving certain kinds of arms. I think that the question Going Forward will be about the historical analogs, in the leadup to bruin, prohibitions on assault weapons and high capacity magazines will be universal upheld in the federal court and there were lower court and held pending bruin. Now, i think the litigation. And now whether assault weapons constitute the dangerous weapons the court in heller and bruin can be consistent with the Second Amendment and i expect thats where most of the litigation will be and the question youre asking is probative to that question. Let me stick with the argument weve heard, its just a piece of material, weapon, plastics and steel and so forth, and i won derp how that logic applies to grenade launchers. We dont allow those to be legally sold to americans. Theyre just inanimate objects. We dont allow automatic weapons be sold to americans, holding the trigger fires round after round after round. Could you describe whether you think theres an analogy. I think that weapons and firearms in particular intensify violence and generations of research has shown us that and dr. Hunter spoke to this earlier that certain gun restrictions may not lesson the number of criminal intercepts, but incidents, but thats the nature of the institute, why some want them for selfdefense and why some criminals want them for use. Theres not too much to the idea that the weapon is inert. Of course it is, but the question is how, what happens with that instrument in various situations whether its put to good use or bad. Thank you, senator. Thank you im sorry, hold on, senator cornyn just returned. Sorry, no problem. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Smith, you talked about the increase in the number of africanamericans who purchase firearms, including africanamerican women in the recent past. What do you attribute that to . Thank you for the question, senator. Its multifacetted, but the one overriding thing that im seeing from my perch as the president of the organization is that black women, like all americans, feel that they need to be able to protect themselves. Theyre not waiting for some guy on a white horse to fly in and save them, they want to protect themselves f someone breaks into their home at 2 00 in the morning, they dont have time to tell hey, wait a second, ive got to call the police. And women en masse are being selfreliant and purchasing fire parms. Where do you live . I live outside atlanta, georgia. Are you familiar with the fact last year alone there with 836 homicides in chicago . I had chicagos a very interesting place in terms of violence, yes. Do you have an opinion whether that violence is predominantly caused by criminal street gangs . Ive talked about this many times in many conversations and interviews. If were really serious about helping poor folks and lets be specific, talking poor black and brown folks, give them jobs, take away the super incarceration of them at an earlier age and they have two or three felonies by the time theyre 23, 24 years of old. Give them the ability to go out and security employment. Those folks are doing what anyone else would do if you cant find a job, theyll sell drugs, beat people up, do whatever they can do take care of babies at home. They have kids at home. But we have to as a country save them, do something other than those guys are bad throw them in jail and more and more ar coming like them. We have to think holistically. My personal belief, im not a scholar like some of the folks on the table. Im a black man 63 years of age and been in this country a long time. If you give folks employment, a reason to buy into the American Dream like all of us to a certain extent. Youll see a dramatic change in peoples behaviors and what they believe in and dont believe in. Thank you for your explanation for what an Assault Rifle is in reality. Its a semi automatic rifle, correct . That is correct. And is an ar15 the only type of semi automatic rifle on the market . Theres a multiple of guns. So many manufacturers out there building guns, you have a lot of choices, but one thing i wanted to point out that i brought up in my statement, when you pull the trigger on an ar, it is not different when you put the trigger and the shotgun. Only one bullet comes out. Thats an important point, i think many people are under the misimpression that its an automatic weapon, for example. And in terms of the mechanism by which a semi automatic rifle works, is it different in principle from a semi automatic pistol or semi automatic weapon . Similarities are pretty even and im not a gun smith and not a person that puts together gun, but when you buy a pistol or buying a shotgun, the mechanism to pull the trigger is relatively the same, one pull of the trigger will produce one bullet coming out of that particular gun. If congress were to take up the suggestion of banning assault weapons of semi automatic weapon, is there any reason in principal why that same ban would not apply to other firearms . Ill say this and i appreciate the question, senator. I say this a lot to my folks, gun rights and gun violence are two separate conversations and two separate events. What happens when we have this deeply passionate conversation, we merge those two and we refuse to look at the nuances. To me, if were really serious about helping folks stop looking at restriction after restriction after restriction, law after law after law after law. Its obvious you can throw 100 laws on the wall there and i could fill the room with 100 folks that back my position, but we need to look at what is solving the issue, the human condition. Thats what were failing to do. People are hurting, people are scared and people are in trouble. Air familiar with the fact that 60 of the gun deaths in america are suicides, are you aware of that . Yes, i am, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Senator feinstein. Thanks, mr. Chairman. For me, this is a very emotional hearing. On may 14th a 18yearold was killed killed 10 people in a Grocery Store in buffalo, new york, using an assault weapon. A week later a 18yearold killed 19 children and two teachers at an Elementary School in uvalde, texas using an assault weapon. On the fourth of july a 21yearold killed seven people and injured dozens more at a Community Parade in Highland Park, illinois using an assault weapon. And just this past weekend, a 20yearold killed three people and injured two others at a Shopping Mall in greenwood, Indiana Using an assault weapon. The 41 People Killed in these four shootings in just the past two months, think about that. They would all still be with us today if it were not for the easy access that people and particularly young people, have to assault weapons. I also believe its congress job to make sure were safe going to the Grocery Store, to school, to parades, and to Shopping Malls. And that safety is not happening. I believe the solution is simple. We must ban assault weapons. Assault weapons are basically weapons of war. They have no place in our communities. The federal assault weapons bans was in place from 1994 to 2004. A 2016 study showed during that time the number of gun massacres fell by 37 . And the number of people dying from gun massacres fell by 43 . In the 10 years after the ban lapsed, there was a 183 increase in massacres and a 239 increase in massacre deaths. So its clear that assault the assault weapons ban helped make our communities safer. And i strongly believe we must pass it again. Dr. Hunter, how do assault weapons differ from other types of firearms and do you believe a ban on assault weapons would be effective . Thank you. Thank you very much for the question and as a native californian, its great to see you as well. So when we talk about these weapons, theres a lot of discussion around semi automatic, versus automatic versus a threeround burst, and each time you pull the trigger, a bull comes out. There are difference between weapons. Shotgun you pull the trigger one time, the bull comes out, a very different type of round, very different muzzle velocity. If we start just with there and there is quite a bit of medical research that shows that the combination of the 223 or a 556 round. A lot of this from the medical community as well. And in combination with the muzzle velocity on the weapon do an incredible amount of damage to the human body and thats what they were designed to do. And that is substantially different than a. 9 millimeter round that was designed for a clean entry, kill type wound as opposed to a round that was designed to not just kill, but also maim and disable and disarm and if you injury someone, have a far greater extent for injury, which is something thats good for combat, but were seeing it happen, happen here that we have. Theres also some substantial differences of just the size and the creation of this rifle. It was designed to be lighter. If we look at the m16 as opposed to m1, which is the Previous Service weapon, theres a threepound differential, this is a lighter more maneuverable weapon other than the several hunting weapons that you see there, that you commonly see. Its important when we talk about weapons, we talk more than whether theyre just semi automatic or fully automatic, because the caliber, the muzzle velocity, the weight the maneuverability, these are characteristics of that as well. Thank you, i authored the legislation that was law and i have introduced legislation for this session. I also, following the tragic attack in buffalo, a bill called the age 21 act, alongside some of my senate colleagues, including several members of this committee. And this bill would prohibit the sale of assault style weapons and high capacity magazines to anyone upped the under the age of 21. The shooters in buffalo, uvalde, Highland Park and greenwood all obtained their assault weapons when they were underage 21. If this bill had been law, it would have prevented these four shooters from killing a combined 41 people. So its rather simple, i think, if you cant buy a handgun, you shouldnt be able to buy an assault weapon. Dr. Hunter, do you believe prohibiting the sale of assault weapons to individuals who are under the age of 21 would help protect our communities from gun violence . What the there isnt a whole lot of research around age restrictions, but it continued what the evidence does show us is that these weapons, when used in Mass Shootings, create a disproportionate number of injuries and deaths that we have and speaking from the science, that is what we know. That when these show up in Mass Shootings, there is more injuries and deaths. Thank you, senator feinstein. Thank you. Senator hirono. Oh, im sorry, senator grassley has returned. I want to tell you i went to the senate floor and i couldnt get time to give my speech so i came back here. I want dd mr. Bentley, i want to follow on your expertise. You heard me talk about the bill i have in to involve greater the secret service, National Threat Assessment Center. You spoke to that as well and whether schools or places or worship or other community organizations, it seems to me, its a step we ought to take. Is behavioral threat assessment the best method to identify an individual mobilizing towards violence and intercede before a violent act is committed . The process of behavior threat assessment, coupled with Emergency Preparedness training and physical security measures help provide safer schools, places of worship, and Safer Communities. If theyre coupled together with fidelity. And individuals are educated in that process. Behavioral threat assessment for you or utilized by schools or workplaces, societies, organizations, so that folks closest to the person moving toward violence can assess. And there are some who dont believe we should be involving Law Enforcement with a person who is getting closer and closer to violence, in part because they distrust police. Do you believe that organizations who despair to implement threat assessment programs should have access to training, necessarily implement such programs . Thats one of the things that im here for is that a number of the schools and organizations, places of worship that we work with, arent getting the good information thats out there and the training that would enable them to better recognize and inform individuals who are in positions to make decisions about situations that are occurring. So, better education of School Employees from the superintendent down to the individual that work in the lunch room would be beneficial in providing safe and more secure learning environment. Mr. Smith, your organization filed an amicus brief in the new York Rifle Association versus bruin case, in that case you cited disciplinary no, im sorry, you cited discriminatory and racial motivations hine gun control policies. Can you tell me how gun control policies like bans on semi automatic rifles and magazines restrictions negatively impact minorities like members of your organization . Thank you, senator. Ill give you a great example. Everybody 0 in my organization, we have over 48,000 members, very robust and very active. Often times ill get a female from a single black mom living in a quote, unquote, challenged area, hey, phil, i just bought an ar15, thank you for the organization and thank you for the training because she feels shes able to protect herself. If you implement a lot of these proposals that im hearing today, lots and lots of black single women, lots of black men who are trying to get protection in these tough neighborhoods, whatever you want to call it, and thats why theres longterm discriminatory, and thats why im along those lines. Can you tell me why bans on assault magazines are not effective and only limit the individuals right to selfdefense. The bans dont work, that was proven in the 90s. They do not work. They only prevent my community to having the best tool possible to prek protect themselves. For my family it the best to protect my wife, my children, lie property and best tool used for a law abiding citizen and thats why its important to have that particular weapon. Thank you. Senator hirono. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Dr. Hunter, would you consider gun violence in our country a National Health issue . Absolutely, it is a public National Health issue. Public health issue and therefore, as a Public Health issue shouldnt be we able to have a lot more information about the incidents of the violence and perhaps why black women, for example, would go out and buy guns in this environment . Absolutely. Evidencebased Public Health approaches to solving problems is something thats essential. Weve seen it with Motor Vehicle accidents. Weve seen it in approaching the hiv aides epidemic and Meaningful Solutions to include legislation as well as, you know, public investiture in private companies to make better decision, allowing consumers to make better decisions comes from transparent data and right now as researchers, we dont have the data to give you the best information possible, to make a comprehensive set of laws that make you safe. And as our colleagues testified, that gun deaths is the highest cause of death for young people in our country and you would think that we would want to better understand the causality and what to do. Professor, is that how you blocher. Sorry. After bruin i would say that theres going to be a lot of questions about various state laws that may fit within the bruin kind after situation, including, by the way, hawaii. I dont know if youre familiar with the fact that hawaii has some of the strictest gun laws in the country and probably the lowest gun violence rate in our country and already after the Supreme Court has a case challenging hawaiis laws back in the 9th circuit. After that would you expect more state laws such as in hawaiis case . What does that do for a states efforts to lower gun violence in their state . Thank you for the question, senator. Not only would i expect it. I think weve already seen it, cases that have been sent back down for further consideration in light of the historical record. Issues we thought to be resolved, constitutionality of Highland Parks assault weapons ban i think will be relit rated. My hope is that judges will recognize what Amy Coney Barrett wrote, history is with the common sense and dangerous persons could be disarmed and likewise, dangerous weapons could be pro libertied and i hope that the jurisprudence continues to reflect that fact. After bruin, do you think that Supreme Court will sustain a national ban on assault weapons . Do you think that this court would support a states ban on assault weapons . And what about bans on large capacity magazines . Do you think this Supreme Court will sustain such bans at either the national or state levels . One of the difficult things about answering the question, the degree in which bruin introduced uncertainty. Here is how i think it through. In the leadup to bruin, such laws were extremely well so theres a jurisprudence that exists and some concluding that the weapons are dangerous and unusual and fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment and some concluding that the government had a sufficient interest and some will be relitigated. And some factors in predicting the response. Affirmed dangerous and unusual weapons can be prohibited and in heller, an opinion by justice scalia, they looked at dangerous weapons with m16s and the like. And ar15s and theyre different and and the like may include ar15s. Its known that theyre in common use, the National Shooting sports, 20 million have been sold in the past few decades. I have flow reason to doubt the accuracy of that number, but id say that 20 million assault weapons in circulation in the past few decades, does not mean the owners. Owners are probably conditions truthed in a smaller proportion of gun owners who themselves are a minority of the American Population and maybe talking about maybe four or five million americans out of 300 plus million and also 20 million is only 5 of the civilian weapons stock. Im not sure that constitute common or not. What id like to know to evaluate the question and what the Supreme Court would ask in light of bruin, considering the burdens on selfdefense. How often are they used in selfdefense in comparison to use in gun massacres and Mass Shootings. We heard earlier, an example where one was, but when marylands prohibition was challenged, neither the challengers or Law Enforcement could point to a single challenge for selfdefense. If thats the case, if we take the industry and Justice Thomas for that matter at their word that these are modern sporting rifles, then thing theyre two times removed from the missile interest in selfdefense. The thing is, the Supreme Court is not asking the question whether or not or how often these kind of assault weapons, however way we describe them, are used in selfdefense. See, thats not the question theyre asking. Theyre asking whether its dangerous and unusual. And when you have 20 million of these kinds of items in our environment, thats not particularly unusual, thats why this is a Supreme Court moving towards enabling more and more people to own all kind of guns. Were already awash in guns in our country. Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator hirono. Im sorry, senator blackburn. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you to each of you for being here today and, mayor, certainly, we extend our condolences and our sympathies to you all in Highland Park, as we do with all of the victims that have faced this type violence. And i think its fair to say that we all share the goal of safe communities and making certain that our children are safe in school and making certain that we can celebrate when we have a july 4th parade or a community event. And what weve as we work on this issue and you look at cities like chicago and philadelphia with very strict gun laws and then you say, how do we get to the crux of this issue, and make certain that people are safe. Mr. Bentley, i want to come to you. I appreciate some of the work that youve done on the issue of Mental Health and as we look at this pattern among some of the last several Mass Shootings, we have seen that shooters previous expressed desire to commit violence. Like the criminal there in Highland Park and the police even having responded to a clear and present danger call on that shooter, after he had made death threats. So, mr. Bentley, talk a little about how we can enhance Mental Health programs and awareness so that potential shooters are stopped before they commit some of these crimes of violence. Thank you for that question. And thats the crux of what the Additional Resources to do the research and to provide Mental Health, particularly as relates to School Safety. A lot of our children are coming out situations involving trauma ap and they need that support so that they can function, providing that help in communities. Okay, can i get you to link that to your work with behavioral threat assessment and those Early Warning signs . Yes, maam. Thats part of the situation that the center pointed out in their research that in order to make the behavior threat assessment process work effectively, it has to be coupled with providing a climate and also providing the situation where those individuals that work in the schools understand what were looking for and who to report that information to in a timely manner, and also, provide those individuals that are crying out with that help that they need and very often, those individuals are not receiving that help, particular Mental Health. So what you need is a greater jurisdiction or latitude at the state and local level so that communities can respond to need, am i am i perceiving that right . The work that were doing with k12 schools involve preparing these schools, those individuals in the schools, with the tools necessary. Okay. Thank you for that. Mr. Smith, i want to come to you, if i may. There was just a mention about not being sure how many defensive gun uses there were every year, and the social distance estimates that there are between 60,000 and 2 1 2 million defensive gun uses every year and they also estimate that there are 39,700 gun related deaths every year in the u. S. And you have talked a little bit about the importance of a firearm, possession of a firearm for selfdefense and i just wanted to give you the opportunity to elaborate on that while i have a few seconds left. Thank you for the question. I think its critically important, particularly for my community to have access to protect themselves and a very basic human level. For years and years, as probably everyone knows in this room, we have not had access to firearms like other communities outside of the black community. So my Organization Goes out and literally educates our folks on what a gun is and what it isnt. How to purchase a gun and trained in going to the range, all the intimate things that you need to know as a firearm and gun owner, we go over those things with our community and thats why our organization has such a strong following and our folks are very, very trained when they go to the range. You just dont jump into the organization and grab a gun. That doesnt happen. All of our possessions are certified and know how to hand al gun at an intimate level and thats probably one of the reasons were doing so well. Thank you all so much. I think we can all agree na that we want to keep our Community Safe and thank you for your testimony, mr. Chairman. And thank you, let me note for the record, the presence in congress of brad snyder who represents Highland Park, thank you for being with us. And let me also note for the record that chicago is not Highland Park. [applause] im proud to represent both communities. There are challenges in both communities, but Highland Park is in a separate county, for those who are not familiar, and is not the same jurisdiction as the city of chicago, the gun violence problem in chicago is a serious one, but much different than the shooting incident that occurred on july 4th that brings us together today. Senator klobuchar. Thank you, as a proud graduate of university of Chicago Law School and i appreciate that and you sharing that with the rest of the committee dr. Hunter, thank you for your time in the marine corps. Im from a state with hunting and fishing and i talked with gun owners like yourself and believe in common sense gun safety measures, clulg banning assault welcomes. I always look at these proposals and ask myself, would this hurt my uncle dick in his deer stand. Can you explain as a combat veteran, grew up sports shooting, based on your knowledge of guns, does my uncle dick need an assault weapon in his deer stand . Thank you very much for the question. One of these times ill get the microphone to work correctly when i press it the first time, too. As someone who has spent time around guns my entire life, in my opinion an ar15 is not an ideal weapon for deer hunting and so, your uncle dick likely will not be using one for deer hunting. Okay, thank you. Part of what makes assault weapons so dangerous is their high rate of fire, as you know, which is also true when handguns are modified with conversion devices that actually turn them into fully automatic weapons. These devices can be purchased from foreign manufacturers for under 20 and installed in minutes. And this week im introducing legislation with senator gary peters from michigan, for federal Law Enforcement to coordinate with local Law Enforcement to crack down on these illegal devices. Do you believe that keeping illegal conversion devices off the streets will save lives . Thank you for the question. What the Research Shows about the weapons, when they are used there is a higher rate of injury and death and some of the research around the initial federal assault weapons ban did show that there was ways to essentially make copy cat weapons and to it had the same effects as the weapons that were intended to be banned. And so while i havent seen the exact legislation, what the research does show us, is that anything that increases a rate of fire or increases the deadliness of a weapon will lead to more injuries and deaths. Thank you. Mayor, thank you for your leadership that youve shown your community and really, the nation. Last week, i met with survivors from the horrific shooting in Highland Park, kids, parents, and i also met with another group from uvalde, where i spoke with a 10yearold girl who was in the classroom next door during the robb elementary shooting, it was her friend, the same grade that she lost and she had pictures she had on a little button that we wore around her neck and brought home to me that tragedy didnt end, of course not in the classroom and didnt end at the funerals, didnt end at the hospital, it continues for the families. There isnt just one victim. Could you talk about the longterm impacts that you expect to see in Highland Park and how people are dealing with their grief . We are still a community trying to figure out the next step to healing. We observed a moment of violence a week after. We held our vigil with traumatized Community Members as well as s. W. A. T. Teams and rooftop sniper teams because people were scared to gather together and just before this hearing i spoke with the husband of a survivor who is still in the icu. Here we are two and a half weeks later is still fighting for preserving her ability to live her life as she has in the past and we know, obviously, about cooper roberts. There is a lot of physical and emotional pain that we will all be carrying with us, but for a lot of folks, their lives will never be the same. We are trying to figure out how do we get our children feel safe going into School Next Month and while i wholeheartedly appreciate the support, all of the Mental Health efforts and the School Hardening efforts and the red flag laws and everything na everyone is trying to do, at the bottom line, moving forward as a community, moving forward as a nation, we need to get combat weapons out of civilian hands. I appreciate the question. Its still a new journey for all of us, it will be a long journey, but right now we had neat these weapons out of civilian hands. Well said. [applause] and for my very last question, mr. Chair, and that was so wellsaid, i think its really important to express the grief, but to turn it into action and you were there on the white house lawn when the president gave his remarks after signing into law the bipartisan Safer Communities act and i thank so many colleagues that worked on that and in my case, the boyfriend loophole closing that bill i worked for 10 years and we finally get it done. And can you explain as we look at the next steps, we cannot wait 10 years or another 10 years or another 50 years to do something when it comes to the threat posed by assault weapons. Highland park was number 309 and now were already up to 350 Mass Shootings in the last 16 days, that many more have been added to the list. There is so much to be celebrated in the safer the bipartisan Safer Communities act and we thank you all for your efforts, but my gosh, how much more needs to happen before this obvious action is taken. We know that there are Mental Health issues in other countries throughout this world. We know that there are troubled people who are inclined to violence, whats the different measure . Access to weapons. I appreciate and share deep concern about the gun violence issues in the city of chicago and all of our nations large cities and frankly, elsewhere, but at the end of the day, todays hearing about Mass Shootings, we get rid of Mass Shootings by keeping weapons out of civilian hands. Thank you. Senator cruz. The state of illinois, like the state of texas is dealing with yet another horrific mass murder. Inevitably when a crime of this sort so curse, a political debate bursts out in washington within instance. Everyone in this committee and this room wants to prevent the next mass murder. Everyone is horrified at the criminals who would take the lives of children, take the lives of the innocent, and were horrified at the steadily increasing rates of murders, whether in the city of chicago, in cities across the country, or whether in my home state in the beautiful Elementary School, robb elementary in uvalde, texas. The question, how do you do so how do you stop mass murders . Target the felons, target those with mental hillness, prosecute them, put them in jail. When they try to illegally buy firearms, prosecute them and get them off the street. And at the same time, enhance the vulnerability facilities in our society. That includes schools, churches, places that these deranged murderers have been targeting. Thats the approach that i believe works. Theres a second approach which the Democrat Members of this committee support, which is gun control, which is targeting law abiding citizens and disarming law abiding citizens. That second approach doesnt work. Its consistently ineffective. If the objective is stop mass murders, gun control doesnt work. State of illinois has among the strictest gun control laws of any state in the country. Highland park has even stricter gun control laws than the state of illinois. Consistently, if you look across the country at the jurisdictions with the strictest gun control laws almost without exception they have the highest crime rates and the highest murder rates. Its not complicated why, when you disarm law abiding citizens, the result is the criminals dont follow the laws, they have the guns and the law abiding citizens are unable to defend themselves. Now, we saw on sunday, another deranged murderer, a killer fired into a green in Greenwood Park mall in greenwood, indiana. Within 15 seconds, that killer was shot and killed by 22yearold Elisjsha Dicken who thankfully was carrying a concealed handgun. Many more lives would have been lost in indiana if mr. Dicken had not been there, his Second Amendment right and saved the innocent there. Thats not the exception and not unusual. Accord to go the obama white house, firearms are used to stop crimes between 500,000 and a million times every year. Whenever you have a deranged murderer committing a crime, there are two and only two ways they stop. Number one, Law Enforcement stops them or number two, an individual citizen who is armed stops them. Those are the two ways, if we want to stop crimes, we want the criminals off the streets and we need to increase Law Enforcement. Now, we just had a debate on gun control and the democrats passed a bill with some republican support that i think is likely to do nothing to prevent Violent Crime. It satisfied a political agenda, but it is unlikely to stop the next mass murder. I submitted a bill, cruzbarrasso, which would have prosecuted violent criminals, gotten them off the streets, it would have created an exile if a criminal creates a crime with a gun the trigger pullers are not there to commit crimes and cruzbarrasso, would have doubled the number of Police Officers in schools and it would have devoted additional 10 billion to Mental Health counselors in schools to stop these troubled young boys and men who so often are the trigger pullers committing these crimes. Unfortunately, the democrats on this committee and every democrat in the senate voted against cruzbarrasso, because a proposal that actually is devoting resources to Law Enforcement, know preventing crime, getting the murderers off the street, thats not politically advantageous. Their objective is disarm the law abiding citizens, indeed, many of the democrats on this committee would happily ban concealed handguns which would have disarmed Elisjsha Dicken and would have resulted in a lot more people being murdered. Many on of the democrats on this committee would ban ar15s, which would have disarmed Steven Willford who stopped the south they areland springs mass murderer with his ar15. And saved lives. This topic is serious. I commend the witnesses for being here. I wish the members of this committee treated it with the seriousness to actually ask what stops crime and stops murders because the Political Solutions this body has put forward does not do that and instead of the political bill thats not going to stop crime we should have passed cruzbarrasso and doubled the number of cops in schools and stopped murderers from committing their crimes. Senator padilla. Thank you, mr. Chair. Barely a month after the tragedy in uvalde, texas the community of Highland Park joined the ranks of those that have experienced the uniquely american epidemic of Mass Shootings. While the bipartisan Community Act was a critical step in addressing the problem, we must now turn to the issue of unfettered civilian access to military style assault weapons. And the laws that enable them to be obtained. And these are weapons designed for the battlefield. Not hunting, not communities, these are assault weapons, not pistols. The threat posed by these instruments of slaughter is robbing our communities of safe spaces. People should not have to live in fear of what happened in uvalde, and Highland Park. We owe it to all americans who have been impacted by senseless gun violence over the years to ensure that it doesnt happen again. Now, the bipartisan Safer Communities act will provide 750 Million Dollars in funding to support crisis intervention services, including state ratified laws. Weve begun to touch on it, earlier in the hearing. That these laws Community Members like families, Police Officers, and doctors, to petition judges, to issue firearm restraining orders for individuals who they believe pose a threat to themselves or others. Robert krimmo exemplified many characteristics that should have made him unfit for gun ownership. Highland park Police Respond today an incident in 2019 where he made threats against his family. Its documented. They confiscated 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword, and ultimately filed a report declaring him a clear and present danger. Between april and september of 2019, reportedly attempted suicide, threatened to kill his family, and told police that he had been depressed and was using drugs. Crimo made social media posts glorifying Mass Shootings. The signs were there. Despite that, he was licensed for several firearms, including the semi automatic rifle he used to carry out the fourth of july. And these are red flag laws that should have been invoked, but werent. In the first year that illinois red flags were, half of them came from a single suburban county outside chicago. And in 2020 and 2021, judges issued only 115 restraining orders, less than five per month statewide. My question, mayor rotering, i want to thank you for your time and our hearts go out to you. Although we know that red flags laws save lives, their usefulness are limited to the people that actually know about them. What suggestions do you have for promoting awareness of the purpose and applicability of these laws so that they are more effective . I appreciate the efforts of the bipartisan Safer Communities act and the willingness to recognize that those closest to our potential shooters are best at assessing the risks, but a burden is placed on them. I grow that theres an opportunity to move forward to stop people from being able to access foids and access weapons, but at the end of the day, those weapons, and particularly these assault weapons, shouldnt be available period. All of these stop gps are excellent efforts and we support them, but lets be clear, the differentiating factor between the u. S. And the rest of the world is assault weapons are available. So, yes, red flags, we need to promote, we need to show the world that this is available, but were putting a burden on people who already may be dealing with the difficulties of a mentally ill Family Member and keeping them safe. We need to get rid of combat welcomes. Weapons. Look, i could not agree more. That is where, as much great work that was done to pass this bipartisan measure, we need to continue the fight to ban assault weapons, to ban large capacity magazines. As skeptical as the people made been at the beginning, its not the band but theres lots to be said about enhanced background checks even if it is for buyers under 21. I wish it wasle for everybody, naturally. The investments in Mental Health, but the red flag laws, not the complete solution in and of themselves but they will help save lives if implemented more broadly. Not every state has their own laws and this is contingent upon a Public Awareness that they exist. So look forward to some follow up with you and the witnesses on how to better implement and raise awarenesspu about that. If police get anything right and they followed the rule and the tried everything that they had at their disposal to make sure that these weapons were not able to be obtained, and yet here we are. Thank you. Thank you, senator. [applause] senator booker. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Smith, i actually feel you and a lot of what you been saying today and as a time people want to sink into defensiveness. We agree on a lot of things with the exception of the fact that the omega is are better than the outlets. I get to ask the questions. Lets just be clear. We know l the history of africanamericans and the entire history of this country being overwhelmingly the victims of horrific violence from the killing of four girls and a bombing in birmingham to the killing of breonna taylorov aslp in her own house, for massacres that it happened like tolls oklahoma, including massacres like weth saw in a church in soh carolina. You would agree about the natural instinct for community isis to want to defend themselvs like black panthers did in oakland or as you sing with black womenen now, correct . Absolutely. You when i also agree that we need with urgency and this kind of violence in the United States of america. Youve said that in your testimony. And so i want to point out some things that i i find outrageous that i think you probably find outrageous, too. The first is that we dont invest incongruities so pilots doesnt happen in the first place. Something you said already, like finding jobs. Number two i introduce a bill called breaks the cycle, cyclef violence act that was included in a bipartisan compromise to do Community Violence intervention. O do Community Violence intervention. From oakland to new york city, there are strategies that are about empowering communities, that actually lower violence. Are you agree with me on that . Absolutely. You and i agree that most of the crimes happening in communities like ours, i am the only senator that lives in a low income black and Brown Community for the last 25 years, and what kills me is that every single shooting, when i was mayor, except for one that we could find, happened with a person who was not qualified to buy a gun, that was able to get that done. You agree, generally, that is the truth, right . Repeat that last part . Most in the crimes of communities like ours are happening because people who do not qualify to buy a gun, criminals, find a way to get a gun, correct . Absolutely. You and i would probably agree that this nation should have universal thorough background checks, correct . Yes, i support background checks. Number two, they traced data. When these crimes happen in communities like mine, they clearance rate on murders is so low but the communities are like, why cant we get the bad people behind but we have laws that prevent people from doing research on trace data, you think that is absurd, yes . I would agree, yes. Thank you very much, you do not have to hesitate so much, i am not trying to trap you. It is okay, it is okay. Here, you and i, i could go down a long list of things that would make all of us safer, that we do not do because friends of mine block us in this body that would make communities like yours and mine a lot safer. Correct . We could find bipartisan things that we could do today. Take the atf, it is the one Law Enforcement organization. We have increased budgets massively. We hand strap the atf and do not allow them to do the job. We do not even allow them to keep computer records of things that are going on. That is absurd, to stop Law Enforcement from doing their job, right . I think where you and i defer, and i see a lot of similarities. Especially haircut, go ahead. Beautiful hair, beautiful hair. I think when it comes down to looking at, lets be clear, i believe that having an ar15 is a value ad. I will get to the air 15, i am just trying to establish the foundation. We have commonalities, but there are differences. Yes, but americans have a lot of agreement on this issue. Even folks that are republican and some democrats from jersey. Let me switch to one thing that i take issue with, you can talk to me later. You said that pulling a trigger, an ar15, pulling a trigger is just one trigger, similar to a pistol or a shock on. At the top of my block a few years ago, shot smith was killed with an Assault Rifle, one of the Police Officer said to me, it was as if, when that bullet hit him, his head exploded. Can you please explain, for the record, the difference between a one shot pistol, versus one of these assault weapons that are used in the war zone . From a functional standpoint there is no difference. Sir you asked your question, let me answer. When you take a shotgun, an ar, or a rifle it is a one trigger system, the sum systems or shotguns and rifles are stronger than the others, absolutely, but the mechanics are the same. I do not disagree with anything that you said. Everything you said is factual. But, dr. Hunter, would you please explain. Thank you, very much, this weapon was chosen by the United States army in vietnam because it was designed to shoot through a standard issue military helmet at 500 yards. It was designed to kill someone wearing a military helmet at 500 yards. What that does to a civilian who is wearing nothing, a baseball cap, is liquefy organs. That is the intent of this round. Yes, one trigger poll but this round, the way it was designed was to do as much damage, as quickly as possible, and to kill enemy soldiers wearing a standard issue and with military helmet. I am out of time and i want to ask the mayor in question, but that is the point, they split hit bodies and they liquefy organs, i have seen too many shootings in my community, they won stand with pistols people are more likely to survive, they ones done with this guns caused unbelievable damage. It takes one poll of a sugar to fire a grenade, one pull of a trigger to fire a pistol, there is a big difference between weapons of war and these weapons. Mayor, i have too much experience with seeing my children die, and god bless our Police Officers in the United States of america. I have not seen heroism, men and women running towards gunfire with no situational awareness. I am not joking, when i say one of my Police Officers i want to hug them because i know that every day they put on that uniform. If i was their Family Member, if i was the husband of a Police Officer you worry about them. What you are officers did, all of the stories i hear, you should be so proud. I am sorry you have to feel that pride. What i do not think folks understand is the true devastation. We mourn the loss of life, that is an calculable. But, when these traumatic events happen to a town, the true cost is so much greater. I have seen businesses closed, i have seen people who are so traumatized that they hear a firework go off on the next fourth of july and dive for cover, could you just, in closing, and then i will return it to the chairperson, try to help people understand that the irregularity of these Mass Shootings in our communities is doing a deeper damage that i think america can even understand, and that it is a matter of time, that we are at the point where mayors all around america know, im sorry, im a former mayor, we know that this is just a matter of time, today we are talking about Highland Park, tomorrow we could be talking about another town, another mosque, another Grocery Store, another church, another school. Could you please just try to capture that one more time . I flew in with the mayor of buffalo, by happenstance, and several of my surrounding region mayors are with me today. We all know it is not f, it is when. The pain of being in a fourth of july parade and getting that call, and thinking, no, not us, not now, not today. I do not know what we will see you next fourth of july, i have people who tell me they will never go to preparade again, i have people who tell me we need to do the biggest parade ever, how do we reclaim normalcy in our community . I do not know. I will be reaching out to the many mayors who called me within an hour of the shooting, who have gone through this painful experience to say to them, how do we move forward . I have been in touch with several of them regularly, i do not know why this needs to be our new normal, i do not know why we need to live this way, and, frankly i need a better explanation to the students who have to go back to the classroom in a month, to be able to say to them do not worry, we have you, when i talk to students in my community they all said to me, yes, we knew this was coming. Not from this particular instance, but every single one of them says we have been waiting for this our whole lives, we have been training for this their whole lives. They knew what to do, they thought it would be at school, heaven help us all, there is no way to live when you are living in that kind of fear, i am so concerned not just for my community, but for our country, this needs to stop. [applause] if there is anything i can do to help your community thank you, senator booker. Thanks to this panel. What happened today in the United States capitol is a demonstration of what we do in america, when we experience tragedies like the tragedy at Highland Park many people just walk away, closely doors and say, i do not want to talk about it, others say i want to talk about this, i want to do something about this, i want to make sure it never happens again, to the residents of Highland Park who came here, and neighbors as well, today, for this hearing, you have taken that extra step. America will notice that. They should. You care, i care, we all care together. That this never happens again. And yet, we know, in reality, it already has and will again. You saw a good illustration of the political aspects of this issue involving guns. Why we can to do so little, once every 30 years we are going to do a gun safety bill . God forbid if that is what happens. The question that we need to ask ourselves, as politicians, and you need to join us in asking, was Highland Park a Tipping Point . Was it a moment when america stopped to reflect on assault weapons . Uvalde, texas, seems to have been. It really motivated a lot of people on both sides of the aisle to finally talk about subjects that were ignored for years. But, when it comes to assault weapons, combat weapons, and what they did in Highland Park, are we ready for this conversation . I do not know the answer to that. I do this for a living. I do not know the answer to that for sure. I will tell you, i do not believe ar15 is just another gone. I think it is a killing machine and we have ample testimony under oath that it is. We saw them by the millions in this country, by the millions. I cannot explain that. I will take exception to one statement made by a senator by the other side of the aisle. He questioned the seriousness, the seriousness of our effort. How could he do that . In light of what you have been through, what america has been through with guns, how could you question any good faith attempt to reduce gun violence in this country . We may draw different conclusions and have different approaches, but for goodness sakes there is nothing more serious than what happened on the 4th of july in Highland Park. I want to remind my colleague when he raises that question, but i think he has gone too far. Your presence today will make a difference with me, and with many. You can tell that from the attendance and participation of the members of this committee. We enacted the most serious Gun Legislation and nearly 30 years with the bipartisan Safer Communities act, i voted for and i will tell you it is not nearly enough. Not enough for the violence that takes place with these mass shooter incidents. Not enough for what goes on in chicago, and other cities like it every single day. And, just for the record the rate of death by population for gun violence in chicago is not as great as it is in rockford nor in my hometown of east east st. Louis, nor as it is in jackson, mississippi, or in many other communities. Its terrible, every life is precious, but to say it is just a chicago phenomenon, its not. Its an american phenomena. It is what we are facing and you are facing in a personal way. I thank you for being here today, for caring enough to come today. Fa and i thank the members of the panel for their testimony. There may be followup questions sent your way. I hope you will respond to them and timely matter. I think the witnesses again, and this hearing of the Judiciary Committee stands adjourned. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] cspan is your unfiltered view of government we are funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communications. Broadband is a force for empowerment. Thats why charter has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. Charter is connecting us. Charter communications supports cspan as a as a c service along with these other Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. Cspanshop. Org to cspans online store. Browse through our latest collection of cspan products, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. Theres something for every cspan fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. Shop now or anytime at cspanshop. Org. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took part in his final question time with members of parliament. The outgoing Prime Minister announced his resignation on july 7 amid several political scandals in recent months. He left the house of