thank you to all the witnesses, especially you, captain kelly. thanks to your beautiful wife, and i mean that in every way. my wife, frannie, and i were heartbroken for the families in newtown, tucson, for those of you listening or watching this hearing in newtown, i want you to know that minnesotans have you in our thoughts and prayers, and we share in your grief. we shared it when we lost lives at a sign factory. maya is here. she lost her father. we share it every time we bury one of our sons or daughters. i know that a group of students from redlake reservation in minnesota, students who lost their classmates to gun violence, made the 1500-mile trip to newtown just a few days before christmas just to let them know that they are not alone. we are all in this together. over the past month or so, i have been talking to my constituents about how to make our communities safer. i traveled safely with hunters and school officials, with law enforcement officers, with mental healt
we are here today to talk about a universal background check that would help make our nation we are here today to talk about a universal background check that would help make our nation safer and limit high-capacity magazines. they are used in crimes and violence across america. even though far more people die each year from handgun- inflicted injury than assault weapon-inflicted injuries. we believe the limit on high- capacity magazines, even in handguns, is necessary. no more than 10. thank you. first i want to acknowledge of the family members out here who have lost loved ones in shootings. i especially want to acknowledge you, maya, who lost her father. i was also listening to all of the statistics here which was important. i am a former prosecutor, i believe in evidence. the statistic i will never forget is the one from newtown, conn. shared with me by a relative of one of the young victims. charlotte bacon loved her girls got troop. her girl scout troop once had 1
student, and she marched in the inaugural parade last week. i can point to one gun store, one store in illinois that account for more than 20% of the crimes in chicago. straw purchasers buy the gun there and they end up in the hands of criminals in the city of chicago. we have to put an end to this i m going to ask a question to the panelists. mr. lapierre, i ran into some of your members in illinois and they tell me, you cannot get the second amendment. it is not just about hunting. it is not just about sports. it is not just about shooting targets. it is not just about defending ourselves from criminals, as ms. trotter testified. we need the ability to protect ourselves from our governments. from our government, from the police, if they knock on our doors and we need to fight back. do you agree with that point of view? if you look at what our founding fathers put that there, they had lived under the tyranny of king george and wanted to make sure these three people in thi
testified. this hearing is just under four hours. [no audio] we have more than 200 people here today and hundreds more watching on our committee web cast. i expect everybody in this room to be respectful of the senators and the witnesses speaking about this very serious subject. i do not want applause for or against any position. the capitol police have been notified to remove any audience interference in an effort to have orderly conduct for that. that is a warning i give the many hearings. we will hear a lot of perspective on gun violence. i will give opening statements. but we have a former member of congress here, gaby giffords who will give a brief message and believed and captain kelly, thank you for your help in bringing your wife here. ms. giffords - ok. thank you for inviting me here today. this is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for democrats and republicans. speaking is difficult but i need to say something important. violence i