Live coverage: Uvalde fourth grader testifies before House panel

The House Oversight and Reform Committee will hear testimony on Wednesday in the wake of recent mass shootings that killed dozens of people.

Among the witnesses was a fourth grader who survived a mass shooting just two weeks ago at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Democrats are hoping that the testimony will aid them in making new gun restrictions a reality.

Follow The Hill’s live coverage below:

Ocasio-Cortez says Congress must address misogyny, domestic violence to solve gun violence
2:12 p.m.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Congress must address the “root causes” of gun violence, including misogyny and domestic violence.

Ocasio-Cortez lambasted her Republican colleagues who argue lawmakers should focus on the criminals themselves rather than regulating firearms.

“This discussion about ‘anything but a gun,’ that these are about violent people, but yet we aren’t doing anything about addressing the actual root causes of misogyny,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“Two-thirds of mass shootings are connected to domestic violence or the emergence of white supremacy radicalization, mass incarceration and poverty,” she added.

Domestic violence-related mass shootings amounted to almost half of all mass shooting deaths and one in ten injuries between 2009 and 2020, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Authorities have said the alleged gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. last month deliberately targeted Black people, driving hours from his home to the predominantly Black neighborhood.

-Zach Schonfeld

Earliest warning signs of a potential mass shooter often on Instagram, Facebook, says nonprofit executive
1:07 p.m.

Nick Suplina, the senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, said potential mass shooters often discuss their plans on social media platforms before committing their crimes.

When asked by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who represents parts of Silicon Valley, if social media companies should have “some responsibility” when minors explicitly discuss school shootings on their platforms, Suplina said they have a “role to play.”

“I think the role of social media companies is an important one, and you’re right to point it out, congressman,” Suplina said. “Instagram, Facebook, these are often where we see the earliest warning signs of a potential mass shooter, as well as other social media platforms where these incidents are discussed.”

Suplina added that the gunman who killed 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., last month cited YouTube videos that he said taught him how to modify his firearm.

In calling for more oversight of social media platforms, Khanna cited Brandenburg v. Ohio, a Supreme Court case that established speech is not protected when it is likely to incite imminent lawless action.

“It is crazy to me that you can have people under 18 talking about shootings and mass shootings, and these companies are taking no action, so we need to have regulation that gets to the heart of this,” Khanna said.

-Zach Schonfeld

Republicans use hearing to focus on mental health, school security
12:38 p.m.

As Democratic lawmakers tie recent mass shootings to a lack of gun regulations, Republicans at Wednesday’s hearing have looked to focus on mental health funding and school security.

Republicans repeatedly decried gun control measures proposed by Democrats and some witnesses as infringing upon the Second Amendment and claimed the proposals would be ineffective in reducing the number of shootings.

“Criminals will obtain their weapons however they want,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.). “They will get them illegally. More gun laws are not going to stop that – not in any way, shape or form because criminals simply do not obey the law.”

Earlier in the hearing, Clyde proposed arming teachers to stop school shootings.

“To those who say that teachers or staff will not take up arms to protect their students, I say they will,” he said.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) said discussions of “moral absolutes” were missing from the hearing, tying the country’s high level of gun violence to a decline in religiosity and an “authentic understanding” of right and wrong.

“There are risks that come with a free society,” he said. “We all understand that, but we have a moral and a spiritual crisis in this country right now, and that is reflected in violent people that we see more and more.”

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) proposed spending more time on mental health and students’ behavior in schools to enable individuals to “identify people who have problems.”

“Let’s identify where in our schools there is something we can make better,” he said.

-Zach Schonfeld

House Republican skipping part of gun violence hearing over ‘exploitation’ of victims
12:20 p.m.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, announced on Wednesday that he would not be attending the first panel of the committee’s hearing on gun violence because it features testimony from an 11-year-old survivor of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

In a statement posted on Twitter shortly before the hearing began, Biggs accused Democrats of exploiting children who were victimized by the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which killed 19 students and two adults, by inviting one to testify.

The congressman said he would watch the first panel on television, then attend and participate in the second.

“While I have no objection to holding a congressional hearing that considers crime, violence, and guns in America, I object strongly to the Democrats’ exploitation of children who have been victimized so recently in Uvalde,” Biggs said.

“The child who is being brought to testify before the Committee this morning was recently victimized and traumatized. The Chair of this committee is re-victimizing and re-traumatizing this child for political purposes,” he added.

Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grade student at Robb Elementary School who covered herself in her friend’s blood and pretended to be dead during the violence, was among those who testified on the first panel on Wednesday. Cerrillo delivered her testimony through a pre-recorded video.

Biggs on Thursday said bringing young children before the committee to re-live the horror of the shooting “is tantamount to child abuse and will no doubt add to the post-traumatic stress of the child going forward.”

“Because of my objection, I will not physically attend the first panel of this Committee hearing, but will instead watch via television. I will attend and participate in the second panel,” he said.

–Mychael Schnell

Arming teachers, armed guards will not stop mass shootings, says teachers union president
12:12 p.m.

National Education Association President Rebecca Pringle testified on Wednesday that arming teachers will not stop mass shootings across the country.

She said that the U.S. “cannot place enough armed guards at every school building in America to protect our babies.”

According to Pringle, asking school educators to “carry weapons” while teaching students is unconscionable.

“We cannot ask educators to carry weapons and wear body armor while teaching and nurturing our students, because by the time someone has shown up with a military weapon, it is already too late,” Pringle said.

She added that the country’s “inability to pass common-sense gun laws” demands that “children and their educators be the brave ones.”

-Sarakshi Rai

NYC mayor: ‘It is high noon in America’
11:52 a.m.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said during an appearance at the hearing that the city had seized 3,000 illegal guns this year under its regulations but argued that federal legislation is needed to stop the flow of guns across city and state lines.

“It is high noon In America — our country, the country I love,” Adams said. “The clock is ticking every day, every minute, towards another hour of death.”

The mayor of the country’s largest city rejected suggestions that gun-related legislation is a partisan issue, instead framing it as a debate between “right versus wrong.”

He also called gun violence a “crisis” that is now killing more Americans than war and has become the top cause of death for young people. Adams told lawmakers that illegal guns are “flooding” the city faster than its police department can take them off the streets.

“No matter what our party affiliations, we are united in our mission to stop crime, save lives and bring an end to gun violence,” he said.

-Zach Schonfeld

Uvalde pediatrician says he saw children’s bodies ‘pulverized’ beyond recognition
11:44 a.m.

Uvalde, Texas, pediatrician Roy Guerrero said that he will “never forget” what he saw in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Guerrero said in his testimony on Wednesday that he rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital immediately after the school shooting.

“I raced to the hospital to find parents outside yelling children’s name to desperation and sobbing as they begged for any news related to their child,” he said.

“Those mother’s cries I will never get out of my head,” he said.

Guerrero spoke about the chaos that ensued following the shooting and said that he had heard from some of the nurses that there were two dead children who had been moved to the surgical area of the hospital.

“What I did find was something no prayer will ever relieve: Two children, whose bodies had been so pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities was blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them. Clinging for life and finding none.”

He said that he had hoped, along with his fellow Uvalde doctors, nurses, first responders and hospital staff, that they would be able to save others arriving at the hospital. But he added that victims they could treat “never arrived.”

“All that remained was the bodies of 17 more children and the two teachers who cared for them.”

–Sarakshi Rai

House Republican: Democrats ‘exploiting the pain’ of witnesses to advance ‘radical interest’
11:39 a.m.

Republicans are criticizing Democrats for bringing in a Uvalde fifth-grader and parents of victims to testify at the hearing.

“You realize that today, they’re bringing an 11-year-old girl here who two weeks ago smeared herself in her classmates’ blood to try to fool the shooter in Uvalde?” Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said in a House GOP press conference as the hearing went on. “They’re bringing in parents who two weeks ago lost their children. And they’re having them testify. And they’ve lied to them, and they’ve said, ‘If you’ll come testify, we’ll pass these bills.’”

Hudson, who is leading GOP-supported legislation to boost school security and mental health resources, noted that none of the bills being considered in the House are expected to pass in the Senate and accused Democrats of trying to do something to “change the political narrative in this election this fall.”

“They’re exploiting the pain of these people, these children, these parents, to advance their radical interest. And I say shame on them,” Hudson said. “I say to Nancy Pelosi, stop the cynical, disgusting charade. Come to the table. We are here we want to talk we want to negotiate. We want to solve this problem. We want to save children’s lives.”

–Emily Brooks

Fourth grader who survived Uvalde shooting says she doesn’t feel safe in school
11:20 a.m.

Miah Cerrillo, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, told lawmakers in a prerecorded statement she doesn’t feel safe in school after last month’s mass shooting left 19 of her classmates and two teachers dead.

When asked if she thought the shooting would happen again, Miah, 11, nodded her head.

Miah said she hid behind her teacher’s desk when the gunman entered the classroom. The gunman proceeded to kill her teacher and told her “goodnight” before killing some of the students in the classroom, she said.

“He shot my friend that was next to me, and I thought he was going to come back to the room,” she said. “So I grabbed the blood, and I put it all over me”

When the gunman went to the adjoining classroom, Miah said she called 911.

“I told her that we need help,” Miah told lawmakers.

Local police have come under scrutiny for their decision to consider the gunman a barricaded suspect and wait in a hallway outside the classroom as students inside called 911.

Miah shook her head when asked if she felt safe in school. When asked what she wanted to change, she said “to have security.”

-Zach Schonfeld

Mother of injured victim in Buffalo shooting calls America ‘inherently violent’
10:55 a.m.

The mother of Zaire Goodman, who was shot and injured in last month’s mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., when a gunman deliberately targeted Black people, connected recent incidents of gun violence to America’s founding and its legacy of slavery.

“America is inherently violent,” Zeneta Everhart told lawmakers. “This is who we are as a nation. The very existence of this country was founded on violence, hate and racism, with the near annihilation of my native brothers and sisters.”

“Yet I continuously hear after every mass shooting that this is not who we are as Americans and as a nation,” she continued. “Hear me clearly, this is exactly who and what America is.”

Getting emotional at times, Everhart detailed her son’s injuries from the shooting, saying he has bullet holes on the right side of his neck, two on his back and another on his leg. Ten people were killed in the shooting and three were injured, including Goodman.

“If after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today does not move you to act on gun laws, I invite you to my home to help me to clean Zaire’s wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and my community,” Everhart said.

She called on lawmakers to prevent children from gaining access to guns and prevent civilians from owning AR-15–style rifles, encouraging the public to vote out lawmakers who do not favor stricter gun laws.

“You are elected because you have been chosen and are trusted to protect us, but let me say to you here today, I do not feel protected,” she said.

-Zach Schonfeld

Fourth grade student who survived Uvalde shooting to deliver prerecorded statement
10:49 a.m.

A fourth grader who survived last month’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas will deliver her testimony through a prerecorded video.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) announced 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who covered herself in her friend’s blood and pretended to be dead, will be represented at the hearing in person by her father after the committee consulted with her pediatrician.

“The committee has been in close contact with Miah, her family and her pediatrician and has been prioritizing her safety and comfort first and foremost,” Maloney said in a statement.

“Her decision to record her story and share it with the American people is courageous — and I hope all Members open their hearts and minds to what she has to say,” she continued.

-Zach Schonfeld

Maloney: ‘We are failing our children’
10:14 a.m.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) opened Wednesday’s hearing by thanking the witnesses who have survived or lost loved ones in recent mass shootings for their “incredible courage,” calling on her colleagues to enact gun control measures.

“Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in our country,” Maloney said.  “As a society, we are failing our children and we are failing each other.”

She chastised Republicans who have blamed mental illness, violent video games and multiple school entry points for the cause of gun violence, calling the issue a “uniquely American tragedy.”

“They have blamed everything but guns,” she said. “But we know the United States does not have a monopoly on mental illness, video games or any other excuse. What America does have is widespread access to guns.”

Maloney called for a ban on assault rifles and greater accountability for the gun industry, pointing to the committee’s ongoing investigation into the manufacturing, sale and marketing of weapons that have been used in mass shootings.

She called an eight-bill gun package expected to come to a vote in the House later today as “crucial first step” to address gun violence.

“My goal for today’s hearing is simple,” Maloney said. “I am asking every member of this committee to listen with an open heart to the brave witnesses who have come forward to tell their stories about how gun violence has impacted their lives.”

-Zach Schonfeld

Gun violence nonprofit executive to rail against gun industry in prepared remarks
9:45 a.m.

Nick Suplina, the senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, plans to leverage his prepared remarks at Wednesday’s hearing to rail against the gun industry, calling for more accountability.

“There is no other way to put it: the gun industry has grown tremendously over the last two decades, business is booming, profits are breaking records,” Suplina plans to say. “And so are rates of gun violence.”

Suplina, who will appear in the hearing’s second panel of witnesses, will reference by name the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which Congress passed in 2005 to grant gun manufacturers broad immunity from lawsuits over crimes committed with their products, although the law carves out certain exceptions.

Democratic state legislatures have shown a renewed interest in holding firearms manufacturers liable for gun violence after recent mass shootings. 

“The gun industry, for its part, has innovated not to make guns — or us — safer, but to make them more dangerous, more likely to evade regulation and its business more profitable,” Suplina plans to say.

He will point to the manufacture of bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire much more rapidly, and the creation of “impossible-to-trace” ghost guns, noting that more than 1 million of the industry’s firearms were recovered in connection to crimes between 2016 and 2020.

“The industry has done almost nothing to take steps to prevent diversion of guns into the criminal market and to gun traffickers,” Suplina will say.

Suplina will also criticize the sales of AR-15–style rifles, which were reportedly used in both the Uvalde shooting and a massacre at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket where officials say the gunman deliberately targeted Black people and killed 10.

“They have normalized the AR platform because its simplicity and modularity makes it easy for gun owners to customize their rifles or build them from scratch, necessitating a huge, profitable aftermarket for parts and accessories,” Suplina will say.

-Zach Schonfeld