FIND THE COURAGE FAMILIES AFFECTED BY GUN VIOLENCE SHOW
One mother spoke through tears about the last morning she saw her 10-year-old alive, the little girl beaming after getting awards for her good grades at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The mother of a 21-year-old man described the hole in the right side of her son’s neck, the two in his back and another in his left leg, wounds caused by “an exploding bullet” from the AR-15-style rifle fired by the gunman at the Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket where the young man worked. An 11-year-old girl who survived the Uvalde mass shooting recounted seeing her friend shot to death and how she smeared herself with blood so she wouldn’t be next. The pediatrician who treated the young school victims testified he will never forget “those mothers’ cries” and two children “pulverized” and “decapitated” by bullets.
People whose lives have been directly — and irrevocably — upended by gun violence were front and center at Wednesday’s House committee hearing on gun-control legislation being debated in the wake of the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Within the space of 10 days last month, 31 people — including 19 children — were killed in the two shootings. Equally horrifying: In the two weeks since the May 24 school slaughter in Texas, there have been 650 shooting incidents resulting in 730 deaths, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
“Somewhere out there, there is a mom listening to our testimony thinking, ‘I can’t even imagine their pain,’ not knowing that our reality will one day be hers, unless we act now,” Kimberly Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, was murdered in Uvalde, told members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee as her husband sat next to her with tears streaming down his face. She, along with other witnesses called by Democrats, pleaded for Congress to pass new gun-control measures, including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to prevent more needless death. That they came forward to testify so soon after such devastating loss is testament to their courage and selflessness.
If only the Republican members of Congress could summon those qualities and stand up to the gun lobby to support sensible gun reforms that have consistent and overwhelming support from the American public. Instead, Republican members of the committee trotted out tired talking points about how the loss of religion or playing of violent videos are the real culprits, along with the canard that gun-safety laws are an assault on the Second Amendment.
The sweeping reforms likely to pass the Democratic-controlled House have no chance in the Senate, because of Republican opposition. That a small group of senators is continuing negotiations offers some slim hope that more-moderate measures might advance.
At least one Republican senator, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, signaled a possible change of heart on gun-control issues after her office was flooded with calls from constituents urging that something be done to stop the spate of mass shootings.
America is indeed crying for change. It’s time that Congress listen to the people it is supposed to serve and take action on gun violence.