Survivors and family members of victims in the recent horrific mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, are set to testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday at a hearing aimed at highlighting the country’s gun violence epidemic.
The House Oversight Committee will hear from a number of witnesses, including Zeneta Everhart, the mother of 20-year-old Zaire Goodman, who was wounded in the racist massacre at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, which saw 10 people killed, as well as several figures involved in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days later, which saw 21 killed, including 19 children.
Among those the panel will hear from are Dr. Roy Guerrero, a Uvalde pediatrician who treated victims of the shooting, Felix Rubio and Kimberly Rubio, the parents of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, who was killed in the shooting, and Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grade student at Robb Elementary who covered herself in her dead classmate’s blood and played dead to survive the shooting rampage.
“Our witnesses today have endured pain and loss,” House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., is expected to say in her opening remarks. “Yet they are displaying incredible courage by coming here to ask us to do our jobs.”
The hearing, Maloney says, will “examine the urgent need for Congress to pass commonsense legislation that a majority of Americans support.”
“Let us hear their voices,” Maloney is expected to add in her opening remarks. “Let us honor their courage. And let us find the same courage to pass commonsense laws to protect our children.”
In a later session, the committee will hear from Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, Nick Suplina, the senior vice president for law and policy at gun reform advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, Community Justice Action Fund Executive Director Greg Jackson, Jr. and Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.
The landmark hearing comes amid a busy week of action on gun safety reform. The House of Representatives is set to vote later Wednesday on a package of gun safety bills that would raise the age to buy semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, ban high-capacity magazines and mandate safe storage of firearms at home. The bill is expected to pass the House, but faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
The hearing also comes one day after a Senate Judiciary Panel meeting on domestic extremism and white nationalism in the aftermath of the racist attack in Buffalo. The son of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, one of the 10 victims of the shooting last month, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and stressed the importance of “calling it what it is…white supremacy.
“This young man, though he pulled the trigger, others loaded the gun,” said Garnell Whitfield Jr., who pressed lawmakers to act against the “cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires.”
“What are you doing? You were elected to protect us,” he said to lawmakers. “Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?”
“If there is nothing then, respectfully, senators … you should yield your positions of authority and influence to others that are willing to lead on this issue,” he added.
Actor and Texas native Matthew McConaughey made a similar plea at a White House press briefing Tuesday after he and his wife, Camila Alves, met with President Joe Biden to discuss the recent spate of mass shootings across the country. The Uvalde native and gun owner called on our leaders to act.
“People in power have failed to act,” he said. “So we’re asking you, and I’m asking you, will you please ask yourselves: Can both sides rise above? Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?”
“This should be a nonpartisan issue. This should not be a partisan issue,” McConaughey said of comprehensive gun reform. “There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters.”
The president also met Tuesday with Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic senator trying to craft a compromise on gun safety legislation, as senators on both sides of the aisle appear optimistic about the prospect of a bipartisan gun reform bill.
Murphy has been working with Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and a broader bipartisan group of senators to try and craft a deal after a Texas shooting that left 21 dead, including 19 children, and a supermarket shooting in Buffalo where 10 Black people were killed. Muprhy previously told CNN on Sunday that red flag laws and background checks are on the table — in addition to enhanced school safety measures and funding for new mental health programs.
Speaking at a press conference with Senate Democrats later Tuesday, Murphy said that he was “encouraged” by the discussions he was having with his Republican colleagues and expressed gratitude toward the White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for “giving us the space that we need to land an agreement.”
Murphy warned that a bipartisan agreement “won’t come close to the full list of things I think are necessary to curb this epidemic” of gun violence, but said that inaction is unacceptable.
“The American people are looking for progress,” Murphy said. “Right now. They’re looking for action. And my hope is in the coming days, we’ll be able to come together in a way that gets us 60+ votes,” enough to overcome the Senate’s legislative filibuster threshold.
“This, to me, feels like a moment where doing nothing is simply not an option,” he continued. “Now, we have to pass legislation that saves lives, none of us should be interested in just checking a box.”
Tuesday’s meeting could indicate that negotiations on Capitol Hill are progressing. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had previously said the president would stay out of early negotiations on gun reform in order to “give it the space that it needs,” while confirming that White House aides had been in “constant communication” with lawmakers.
“I’m encouraged by the discussions that we have had with Republicans over the course of the last week and a half,” Murphy said Tuesday afternoon. “Every day we get closer to an agreement, not further away.”
Spectrum News’ Austin Landis and Rachel Tillman contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
