The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-09)

A6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 2022

texas school shooting

Inside the room and elsewhere around the Capitol on Wednes- day, Republicans offered sympa- thies to the victims but no indica- tion that they intended to change their views on gun rights. Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), a gun-store owner, said at the hearing that the tragedies “highlight the need for additional school security” and condemned Demo- crats for seeking to restrict firearms. “While every loss of life is a tragedy, no one should weaponize or politicize these abhorrent acts to punish law-abiding citizens,” he said. Rep. Richard Hudson (N.C.), a leading gun rights supporter among House Republicans, pro- moted legislation at a news conference Wednesday that would put billions of federal dollars into school security programs but not touch gun laws. GOP leaders forced a vote on Hudson’s bill Wednesday as an alternative to the Democratic gun bill; it failed along party lines. Hudson accused Democrats of “exploiting these tragedies to advance their radical gun-control agenda” and criticized Pelosi and other leaders for inviting victims to testify and call for measures that cannot pass Congress. “The bills on the floor this week would have done nothing to stop any of these tragedies, and they will never become law,” he said. “They’re exploiting the pain of these people, these children, these parents to advance their radical interests, and I say shame on them.” During floor debate, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) called on officials to “quit advertising our schools as soft targets... and that these kids are sitting ducks,” encouraging legislation that would put more armed personnel inside schools. And he dismissed the minimum-age provision as “im- moral.” “We’re telling 18-, 19- and 20- year-olds... You can go die for your country, we expect you to defend us, but we’re not going to give you the tools to defend your- self and your family,” he said. While those hard-line voices dominated the floor debate Wednesday, another group of House Republicans stood on the sideline waiting alongside Demo- crats to see if the Senate could produce a passable bill. “Depends what’s in it, obvious- ly,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate. “But... John Cornyn, I trust him, I think he’s a good man and he’s going to give it a sincere, good-faith effort to protect the Second Amendment.... We want to do better.”

Devlin Barrett and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.

cials said the assessment con- ducted by the Office of Communi- ty Oriented Policing Services will examine policies, training, com- munications and tactics, as well as the post-incident response, but will not be a criminal investigation. “Nothing can undo the pain that has been inflicted on the loved ones of the victims, the survivors and the entire community of Uvalde,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “But the Justice Department can and will use its expertise and independ- ence to assess what happened and provide guidance moving for- ward.” As the hearing concluded, Oversight Committee Chairwom- an Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said her panel intended to contin- ue an investigation focused on the firearms industry — “to get to the bottom of how much these com- panies are profiting from selling weapons of war and how they are marketing these weapons to civilians.” Maloney said the committee has already gotten “troubling” written responses from gun man- ufacturers and said she intended to call their executives to testify. “It is clear they are reaping enormous profits from assault weapons that are used in mass shootings of innocent civilians,” she said.

thought it would happen again, she nodded. “I wish something would change not only for our kids, but every single kid in the world, because schools are not safe anymore,” Miah’s father, Miguel Cer- rillo, then told the panel. “Some- thing needs to really change.” Rubio, the mother whose 10- year-old was killed, was more direct, calling on Congress to raise the minimum age for assault weapon purchases, repeal gun- makers’ immunity from product liability lawsuits, and approve red-flag laws and stronger background checks. So was the pediatrician, Roy Guerrero, who described young bodies “pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart.” “Keeping [children] safe from bacteria and brittle bones, I can do, but making sure our children are safe from guns, that’s the job of our politicians and leaders,” he said. “In this case, you are the doctors and our country is the patient. We are lying on the oper- ating table riddled with bullets, like the children of Robb Elemen- tary and so many other schools. We are bleeding out and you are not there.” The testimony came as the Jus- tice Department on Wednesday outlined the review it will con- duct of the Uvalde massacre. Offi-

things done,” Cornyn said. “Around here, if you know people have the will, there is a way, and I believe there is a collective bipar- tisan will.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday she was “prayerful” about the Senate talks and suggested that her chamber stood ready to pass whatever package the negotiators could agree upon. “Hopefully, we can make some advancement, because for all of us who have met again and again and again with the survivors of gun violence — some coming time and again to check up on what’s happening, others new to that horrible club that none of us wants to be a member of — they just want something to happen,” she said. Each of the adults from Uvalde who testified Wednesday to the House Oversight and Reform Committee asked Congress to take action, as did Zeneta Ever- hart, the mother of a young man wounded in the Buffalo shooting. The hearing featured a video- taped account of the Uvalde shooting from survivor Miah Cer- rillo, 11, who described wiping her dead classmate’s blood on herself to fool the shooter into believing she was dead. She asked for “security” and said, “I don’t want it to happen again.” Asked by an interviewer if she

their own red-flag laws with a measure from Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) that would allow federal courts to issue red-flag orders, which are formally known as “ex- treme risk protection orders.” The House last year passed two bills dealing with federal background checks — one that would expand their applicability to all commercial sales, including gun shows and internet transactions, and another that would extend the time frame for completing a check. Neither has come to a vote in the Senate because of GOP oppo- sition. The Senate is exploring a nar- rower package that could include legislation encouraging states to create red-flag systems, a modest expansion of background checks to incorporate juvenile records, as well as funding for mental health programs and school security im- provements. Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), the lead GOP negotiator, cited “steady progress” Wednesday, but he declined to say when a deal might be reached and counseled against “artificial deadlines.” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has signaled a desire to accelerate the talks, lest the recent shootings fade from public attention. “But I sense a feeling of urgen- cy and a desire actually to get

sealing a deal in the coming days.
Still, Democrats said this
week’s House votes were neces-
sary to show Americans that more
can be done to prevent not only
mass-casualty incidents such as
the killings last month in Buffalo
and Uvalde, but the hundreds of
less deadly mass shootings and
everyday incidents of gun vio-
lence that have long scourged
America.
“Even if our Senate colleagues
do not take up these exact bills, I
will tell you what this process we
are going through will absolutely
do and why our efforts here are
worthwhile: This process will un-
equivocally show where each and
every one of us stand in the wake
of this unspeakable tragedy,” said
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.),
adding that the votes would send
a clear message to the Senate
negotiators.
Republicans attacked the bills
as an unserious, partisan effort
that would infringe on Ameri-
cans’ constitutional rights. At a
news conference Wednesday,
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called
them an effort “to destroy the
Second Amendment.”
The bill under consideration
Wednesday, Jordan said, “in
short, tells Americans, law-abid-
ing American citizens, when they
can buy a firearm, what kind of
firearm they can get, and where
and how they have to store it in
their own darn home — a direct
attack on Second Amendment
rights.”
Besides the minimum-age
measure and the ban on high-
capacity magazines, the House
legislation passed Wednesday in-
cludes proposals that would crack
down on gun trafficking, create
new safe-storage requirements
for gun owners, and codify execu-
tive orders that ban untraceable
“ghost guns” as well as “bump
stock” devices that allow a semi-
automatic rifle to mimic ma-
chine-gun fire.
Of the five House Republicans
voting for the bill — Brian Fitzpat-
rick (Pa.), Anthony Gonzalez
(Ohio), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.), Adam
Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Fred Upton
(Mich.) — only Fitzpatrick is seek-
ing reelection. Among Demo-
crats, Reps. Jared Golden (Maine)
and Kurt Schrader (Ore.) voted
no; Schrader lost his campaign
for renomination last month.
House lawmakers will vote
Thursday on a separate bill deal-
ing with red-flag laws that could
allow authorities to keep guns out
of the hands of people judged to
represent a threat to themselves
or their communities. The bill
combines legislation from Rep.
Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) that
would create a federal grant pro-
gram to encourage states to adopt

GUNS FROM A

Senate negotiators exploring modest expansion of background checks

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS From left, GOP Reps. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Steve Scalise (La.) address reporters Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Speaking at a news conference, Jordan called the Democratic-led gun-control legislation an effort “to destroy the Second Amendment.”

Miah,” he said during his testimony. He later recounted the horror of seeing two students in the hospital who were killed at t he school. “Two children, whose bodies had been pulverized by the bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities were the blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them,” he said of the deceased children. Cerrillo was finally able to hug Miah when they reunited at the hospital. The happiness he felt was quickly replaced with sadness as he realized his “baby girl” wasn’t there. “I just want my baby girl the way she was because we could sit and chitchat and play games all day or go run outside. I love when she used to tell me, ‘Dad, you can’t run, you’re fat,’ ” he said. “It’s not Miah no more. She doesn’t tell me stuff like that. I miss that.” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who used to chair the conservative House Freedom Caucus, accused Democrats of exploiting the girl’s trauma by asking her to testify. “You just prolonged the agony of that little girl, and for what? Your own political purposes,” he said. But Miah’s dad said his daughter acknowledged that, as a survivor, her testimony could be pow- erful enough to promote change. “She’s a brave little girl and she will always be our brave little girl. But you know, I don’t know, it’s just crazy because I keep replay- ing it in my head. It just hurts me because I could have lost my baby girl,” Cerrillo told The Post on Wednesday. “We tell her, you know, ‘You have a couple of friends that are still alive,’ ” he said. “And she tells us, ‘I don’t have friends anymore. All my friends are dead.’ ”

and bad with that assault rifle, but why you didn’t go in there and save the little kids?’ ” he said. “They were ready to shoot parents instead of taking care of the shooter.” Guerrero, the Uvalde pediatrician, testified he will never forget the “desperation and sobbing” he heard from parents gathered outside of the hospital. When he reached the emergen- cy room, Guerrero said, he im- mediately ran into Miah, who was sitting in shock in the hallway, her whole body shaking. “The white Lilo and Stitch shirt she wore was covered in blood and her shoulder was bleeding from a shrapnel injury. Sweet

got my teacher’s phone and called

I told her that we need help
and to send the police in our
classroom to have security,” Miah
testified.
Republicans spent a majority o f
their speaking time at the hearing
arguing that more law enforce-
ment officers were necessary to
protect schools and quickly re-
spond to threats. But Uvalde par-
ents questioned whether that’s
the answer. After trying to re-
trieve his daughter as she walked
onto a school bus during the evac-
uation, Cerrillo faced the barrel of
a rifle held by a police officer who
was telling him and other parents
to get away.
“I told him, ‘What, you’re big

police department and sheriff’s office pages he follows alerting him that there was an active shooter around his daughter’s school. He called his wife, who had just dropped off Miah after taking her to see Guerrero, her pediatrician, for an ear infection. Around that time, Miah was hiding behind her teacher’s desk near stacks of backpacks. She recalled that after the gunman en- tered an adjoining classroom, he stepped into theirs and immedi- ately shot her teacher in the head before shooting several class- mates. Before leaving the room, he shot her best friend sheltering next to her. “I just stayed quiet and then I

lief. In an emotional plea, Rubio asked Congress to ban assault ri- fles and high-capacity magazines, raise the age to buy a gun to 21, expand background checks and incentivize the nationwide use of red-flag laws. “Somewhere out there, a mom is hearing our testimony and thinking to herself, ‘I can’t even imagine their pain,’ not knowing that our reality will one day be hers, unless we act now,” she said as a single tear rolled down her husband’s cheek. Another grieving mother, how- ever, disagreed with the panelists who called for Congress to pass more gun-control laws. Lucretia Hughes, of the DC Project — Wom- en for Gun Rights, lost her son in 2016 after a criminal illegally ob- tained a firearm. She expressed pessimism that any laws could have changed the outcome, calling lawmakers “delusional.” “How about letting me defend myself from evil?” said Hughes, who is Black. “I am a walking testimony of how the criminal justice system and the gun control laws, which is steeped in racism by the way, have failed the Black community.” Cerrillo, in an interview with The Washington Post, could not put into words the luck he and his family feel to have Miah walk out of the school a survivor. But as he watched her prerecorded video from the hearing room, he wiped away tears. He did not see her on the screen, a bespectacled little girl in a tank top adorned with bright yellow sunflowers. Instead, he kept flashing back to the first time he laid eyes on her as she evacuat- ed Robb Elementary “covered in blood, scared for her life.” Cerrillo recalled receiving a no- tification on Facebook from the

sun,” recounted how 18-year-old
Salvador Ramos came into her
classroom and shot her teacher
before turning his AR-15-style ri-
fle on her friends.
“He shot my friend that was
next to me and I thought he was
going to come back to the room, so
I grabbed the blood and put it all
over me,” she recounted.
The brief testimony encapsu-
lated the anguish felt by many
across the country after a series of
mass shootings in recent weeks
almost a decade after a gunman
killed 26 people, including 20 chil-
dren, at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Newtown, Conn.
The Uvalde shooting has reig-
nited negotiations between a bi-
partisan group of senators, who
have expressed desire to break the
logjam that has long plagued ef-
forts to address gun violence.
Miah’s testimony was coupled
with that of others who have been
touched by gun violence, includ-
ing Zeneta Everhart, whose son
was wounded in last month’s
shooting in Buffalo, and Miah’s
pediatrician, Roy Guerrero.
Felix and Kimberly Rubio,
whose daughter Lexi was killed in
Uvalde, testified via Zoom. Kim-
berly Rubio, speaking through
tears just two days before she will
lay her daughter to rest, recalled
saying goodbye to Lexi after cel-
ebrating her winning the “Good
Citizens Award” at school the day
she was killed.
“We told her we loved her, and
we would pick her up after school.
I can still see her, walking with us
toward the exit,” she said. “I left
my daughter at that school, and
that decision will haunt me for the
rest of my life.”
Chairwoman Carolyn B. Malo-
ney (D-N.Y.) wiped away tears as
others shook their head in disbe-

HEARING FROM A

Father says Uvalde horror left his daughter changed, scared

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST Uvalde, Tex., pediatrician Roy Guerrero, center left, and Miguel Cerrillo, whose daughter survived the shooting in Uvalde, are sworn in Wednesday at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing.

The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-09)

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources