Gun violence hearing - latest: Republican claims Democrats using 11-year-old Uvalde victim for political gain
House Oversight Committee holds hearing to hear stories of gun violence’s impact on families
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The House Oversight Committee met on Wednesday for its own response to the twin massacres in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Tuesday regarding the rise of domestic terrorism.
Family members of the victims of the two shootings arrived on Capitol Hill for the first time since the two tragedies unfolded as a bipartisan group in the Senate met to discuss a path forward on firearms and school security legislation.
Lawmakers are debating a number of potential responses to the two deadly shootings, which both involved AR-15-style rifles wielded by suspects under the age of 21. The suspect in Buffalo, unlike in Uvalde, is thought to have had a clear racist motive for his attack.
But any path to legislation reaching Joe Biden’s desk must pass through the evenly-divided Senate, where it will need the votes of at least ten Republicans to pass.
On Tuesday, actor Matthew McConnaughey gave an impassioned speech on guns to the White House press.
‘Many come from Georgia’: NYC Mayor tells Republican guns seized in biggest city in US hail from his state
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has told Georgia Republican Jody Hice that many guns seized on NYC streets come from his state.
Mr Hice asked Mr Adams if it was accurate that despite it being outside the bounds of the law for many people to carry guns in New York, police are finding them in “record numbers”.
Mr Adams said it was accurate, adding “and many come from Georgia”.
‘Disturbed loners’: Texas Republican argues against gun control
Texas Republican Pat Fallon said tighter gun control measures would not solve the gun violence problem.
“Senseless mass shootings are committed by unstable disturbed loners with mental disease,” he said.
“More firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make us all safer,” he added, arguing for heightened security on school campuses.
Republican uses West Virginia shooting to argue against gun control
Following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a woman in West Virginia reportedly shot and killed a man who had started firing an AR-15 into a crowd at a party.
Georgia Republican Andrew Clyde said the man had obtained the firearm illegally.
“Criminals will obtain their weapons however they want,” he said. “They will get them illegally. More gun laws are not going to stop that.”
‘This is about blood money’: AOC blasts gun industry lobbyists
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the gun industry and its lobbyists.
She noted that some makers of guns have seen their profits double in the last few years.
She said the profits were “one thing more important to lobbyists and the gun industry than children and houses of faith”.
“This is about blood money,” she added.
Republican frustrated with police commissioner over question of gun seizure
Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins, a former sheriff’s captain, grew frustrated with the Buffalo police commissioner when he didn’t answer a yes or no question regarding if he would seize someone’s guns based on an anonymous tip.
Mr Higgins told Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia that “you’re a police commissioner, a thin blue line brother, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and you’re saying you’d seize those weapons. I see that as a problem”.
‘I really believe that we are doomed’: Democrat shares worries about gun legislation stalemate
Maryland Democrat Kweisi Mfume represents large areas of Baltimore, a city where deaths from gun violence have increased in the last half-decade.
He said that if Congress can’t pass significant gun control legislation, “I really believe that we are doomed in our fight against murderers and their guns, and the evil and the pain that they spread.”
Republican accuses Democrats of worsening trauma for 11-year-old Uvalde survivor
Arizona Republican Andy Biggs has accused Democrats of adding to the trauma of 11-year-old Uvalde shooting survivor Miah Cerrillo for political gain by having her record her testimony describing her experience on camera.
“It’s particularly pernicious and outrageous to take an 11-year-old child, who graphically described how she spread a classmate’s blood upon her and feigned her own death, to make her relive that,” Mr Biggs said.
Nine-member team to investigate police response in Uvalde, Justice Department says
The Justice Department has announced the team that will officially review the actions of the Uvalde Police Department during the massacre that left nearly two dozen people dead at an elementary school.
Speculation about the officers’ actions that day has swirled for weeks, with official explanations from local authorities shifting and contradicting each other on several occaisions. Given that the siege finally ended when a strike team of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol agency arrived, many are questioning why Uvalde police did not act sooner themselves to stop the carnage.
Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that Uvalde’s mayor had requested a critical incident review during remarks delivered on Wednesday.
“There is nothing that we can do that can undo the pain” suffered by victims’ families in Uvalde, Mr Garland said during his remarks.
But the Justice Department can help with “assessing what happened” that led to the shooter being inside the school for nearly an hour, and provide guidance for law enforcement going forward, Mr Garland said.
Read more:
Nine-member team to investigate police response in Uvalde, Justice Department says
Announcement comes amid two congressional hearings on gun violence and extremism
Republican blames violent children ‘fatherlessness’ and ‘broken homes’
Texas Republican Michael Cloud blamed violence among children on “fatherlessness” and “broken homes”.
He mentioned multiple studies before he claimed, without citation, that the Biden administration has “promoted policies that continue to break down the home”.
Rep Raskin compares US to ancient civilisations that ‘practiced human sacrifice’ in gun violence hearings
Rep Jamie Raskin has compared modern-day America to ancient civilisations that “practiced human sacrifice” as “innocent children” are sacrificed every day to the nation’s “bogus” reading of the Second Amendment.
The Democratic congressman testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning where mass shooting victims, survivors and witnesses spoke out following a string of massacres including in the racist attack in Buffalo, New York, and school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“In the history of our species, a number of civilians have practiced or allowed human sacrifice including the sacrifice of children,” he testified.
“The Carthaginians, the Mesopotamians, the Incas, the Aztecs,” he listed.
“Will we be recorded as such as society that accepts the sacrifice of innocence?”
Read more:
Rep Raskin compares US to ancient civilisations that ‘practiced human sacrifice’
Mass shooting victims and survivors testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday
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