the part of american history, african americans built this country from the ground up. my ancestors blood is embedded in soil. we have to change the curriculum and schools across the country so that we may adequately educate our children. reading about history is crucial to the future of this country, learning about other cultures, ethnicities, and religions in schools should not be something that is up for debate. we cannot continue to whitewash education and creating generations of children to believe that one race of people are better than the other. our differences should make us curious, not angry. at the end of the day, i bleed you bleed, we are all human that awful day that will now be a part of the history books. hopefully, let us not forget to add that horrific day to the curriculum that we teach. our children guns, the 18 year old terrorists who stormed into my community armed with an air 15,

killing 10 people and entering 3 others, received the shot gun from his parents. for his 16th birthday, for zaire, 16th birthday, i bought him a few video games, some headphones, a pizza, and a cake. we are not to say how and why, and what in the world is wrong with this country. children should not be armed with weapons. parents who provide their children with guns should be held accountable. law makers who continuously allowed these mash students to continue by not passing stricter gun law should be voted out to the law makers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws. let me paint a picture for you. my sons, i here has a hole in the right side of his neck to on his back and another on his left leg. caused by an exploding bullet from an air 15. as i clean his rolls, i can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. shrapnel will be left inside of his

body for the rest of his life. now i want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. this should not be your story or mine as an elected official. it is your duty to draft legislation that protects i year in all of the children and citizens in this country. common sense gun laws are not about your personal feelings or beliefs 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. no citizen needs an air 15. these weapons are designed to do the most harm in the least amount of time. and on saturday, may 14th. it took a domestic terrorist just 2 minutes to shoot and kill 10 people and injured 3

others. if after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today, does not move you to act on gun loss. i invite you to my home to help me clean xavier's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been cost to my son and to my community. to the families of ruth whitfield, pearl young, catherine massey, hayward patterson, soliciting cheney. geraldine talley, erin salter andre mcneil, marcus morrison, and roberta drury, i promised that their deaths will not be in vain. zire and i promised to use our voice to lift their names and we will carry their spirit with us as we embark on this journey to create change. i know that their collective souls watched out for as i hear that day, and i am eternally grateful to them for that to the east side of buffalo. i love you. i'm speaking directly to my people, to my hood from bailey, to broadway to kansas into fillmore to delve into jefferson and every street in between. just like the potholes that we want filled in. yes,

i keep it real together. we will continue to fill those streets with love, no matter what people say about the side of buffalo, we will not be broken. i was born there, raised there. i raised my son there, i still lived there, and i do the majority of my professional work on the side of buffalo. i'd vowed to you today that everywhere i go, i will make sure that the people hear the real stories of our people for too long our community has been neglected and starved. the resources that we so greatly need . i promised that i will not stop pushing for more resources to be funneled into the east side of buffalo each and every person that lives within that community. we are family, not a perfect community, but i know that we are love to the greater buffalo air area to everyone from around the country and the world who have reached out and loved on the us. on behalf of the year that your father, damien goodman, my mother, my father, my sister's my brothers and myself,

we thank you. we thank you for all of your thoughts and your prayers. thank you for all of the love and support you have shown us during this difficult time. but i also say to you today with a heart full from the outpouring of love that you all so freely gave us. your thoughts and prayers are not enough. we need you to stand with us in the days, weeks, months and years to come and be ready to go to work and help us to create change that this country so desperately needs. and i will end with a quote from charles bloom and his book, the devil we know race as we have come to understand it is a fiction, but racism as we have come to live, it is a fact. the point here is not so impose a new racial hierarchy but to remove an existing one. after centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy it is to me that it had fall in

the black people to do with themselves. and i stand at the ready thy air. this is for ye kit. happy birthday. thank you. ah, doctor guerrero, you are now recognized. fear testimony. thank you. thank you joe. my name is dr. royal. i am a board certified pediatrician and was president you valley memorial hospital. the day of the massacre on may 24th 2022 at rob elementary school. i was calling today as a witness, but i showed up because i am a doctor. because how many years ago i swore an oath and no to do no harm. after witnessing 1st hand, the carnage in my home town of you valley to stay silent, would have betrayed that oath. inaction is harm. passivity is harm, delay is harm. so here i am not to plead,

not to beg or convince you of anything. but to do my job and hope that by doing so, it inspires the members of his house to do. there's a living evolving my whole life. in fact, i attended rob elementary school myself as a kid, as often as the case with us grownups. we remember lot of the good and not so much of the bad. so i don't recall homework or detention. remember how much i loved going to school. what a joyful time it was. back then we're able to run between classrooms with ease, to visit our friends. and remember the way the cafeteria smelled at lunch time on hamburger thursdays. it was right around lunch time on a tuesday that that gunman entered the school through a main door without restriction massacred 19 students in 2 teachers. and change the way that every student rob in their family room, remember that school forever. i doubt the rumor, the smell of the cafeteria, or the laughter ringing in the hallways. instead, though behind it by the memory of screams and bloodshed, panic and chaos. police shouting parents wailing. i know i'll never forget what i

saw that day. for me that day. so like any typical tuesday in our pediatric clinic, mom's calling for coughs buggers. sports physicals, right before the summer rush school was out in 2 days, then summer camps would guarantee some grades. his sins, ankle sprains injuries that can be patched up and, and fixed with a mickey mouse sticker as a reward than at $1230.00 business as usual stops. and with it, my heart, i calling from a san antonio trauma center, texted me and said, why are pediatric surgeons anesthesiologist on call for a mass shooting in new valley? i race to the hospital to find parents outside, yelling children's names, and desperation, and sobbing as a beg for any news related to their child. those mothers cries, i will never get out of my head. as i entered the chaos of the e r i. the 1st casualty i came across with me. i said leo. she was sitting in the hallway. her face was still still clearly in shock, but her whole body was shaking from the adrenaline coursing through it. the whitely

loan stitch shirt that she wore was covered in blood and her shoulder was bleeding from shrapnel injury. sweet mia? i've known her home my whole life as a baby. she survived major liver surgeries against all odds. and once again, she's here as a survivor, inspiring us with her through were to with her church story today and her bravery. when i saw me sitting there, i remembered having seen her parents outside. so after quickly examining 2 other patients of mine in the hallway with minor injuries, i raced outside to let them know that mia was alive. i wasn't ready for their next urgent and desperate question. where is the lena lynas me is 8 year old sister who was also at rob at the time of the shooting. i had heard from some of the nurses that there were 2 dead children who had been moved to the surgical area of the hospital. as i made my word there, i prayed that i wouldn't find her. i didn't find a lena, but what i did find was something, no prayer. whatever we leave to children whose bodies have been pulverized by

bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart. that the only clue at their identities was a blood splattered cartoon closed still clinging to them cleaning for life and finding none. i could only hope these 2 bodies were tragic exception to the list of survivors. but as i waited there when my fellow you, val, the doctors, nurses, 1st responders in hospital staff for other casualties, we hope to save. they never arrived. all that remained was a bodies of 70 more children and the 2 teachers who cared for them, who dedicated their careers to nurturing and respecting the awesome potential every single one. just as we doctors do i'll tell you why i became a pediatrician because i knew that children were the best patients. they accept the situation. i didn't explain to them. you don't have to coax them into changing their lifestyles in order to get better or plead them to modify their behavior. as you do with adults, no matter how hard you try to help an adult,

their path to healing is always determined by how willing they are to take action. adults are stubborn. we're resistant to change even when the change will make things better for ourselves. but especially when we think we're immune to the fallout, why else would have been such little progress mean in congress to stop gun violence? innocent children all over the country today are dead because laws and policy allows people to buy a weapons before they're legally old enough to even buy a pack of beer. they're dead because restrictions have been allowed to lapse their dead because there are no rules about where guns are kept because no one is paying attention to who is buying them. the thing i can figure out is whether our politicians are failing us out of stubbornness, passivity or both. i said before that has grown us. we have a communion, habit of remembering the good and forgetting the bad. never more so that when it comes to our guns, once the blood is rinsed away from the bodies of our loved ones and scrubbed off

the floors of the schools and supermarkets in churches, the cornish from each scene is erased from a collective conscience. and we return again to nostalgia to the rose into the view of our 2nd amendment as a perfect instrument of american life. no matter how many lives are lost. i chose to be a pediatrician. i chose to take care of children, keeping them saved from parental diseases. i can do keeping them safe from bacteria and brill bones. i can do. but making sure our children are safe from guns. that's the job of our politicians and leaders. in this case, you are the doctors and our country is a patient. we are line on the operating table rolled with bullets like the children of rob elementary and so many other schools. we are bleeding out and you are not there. my oath as a doctor means that i signed up to save lives. i do my job and i guess it turns out that i am here to plead to beg to please,

please do yours. thank you. we will now play the video from mia lane. m a g o washer and she got a newer b o door here. oh i

the battery should go higher and then we like to go i, i banks bidding the. ringback window and they went to the classroom and then when they're done between high school and he, when i told when children in shy and then and then suddenly bang the wire forum. when i went to the backs g, a n n a down the road. gotta learn, i mean, i mean,

what did you guys tell you? but i don't understand. i teachers follow. i'm waiting long, hold for a loan. i. i sure it was something that he was able to know. wow. that day in about you or things that you want different. what would it be? key. feel safe for one. again. do you think it happened again? mister syria here now rector recognised glue to day. i

come because they're going to love my baby girl. but she is that the same little girl that i used to play a wood angram wood and do everything because she was bet is little girl. i have 5 kids and she's middle joan i don't know what to do cuz i would think i would have lost my baby girl. my baby girl is door oaks not only once, but twice. she came back to us. she's everything not only for me, but her siblings and her mother i thank you for letting me be here and speak out, but i wish something will change. not only for kids, but every single kid in the world because schools are not safe anymore. so the

needs to really change thank you. thank you for your testimony, and i understand you are now the even we thank you for sharing your story. thank you and mr. and mrs. rubio, you are now recognized for your testimony than i am. kimberly review. this is next. rubio, for the parents of alexandria, best known as lexi reveal, and 5 other children who all attended you about the public schools through the 20212022 school year police over completed high school this year. isaiah who attends you bell. the high school david, what alex junior, high jeweler, florida elementary, and our 2 youngest children, julian eat, alexi can, who, rob, elementary. on the morning of may, 24th, 2022. i dropped lexi and julian off at school. a little after 70 im. my husband and

i return to the campus at 80, am julian's award ceremony. and again at 10 30 am or alexys awards ceremony, like she received the good citizen award and was also recognized for receiving all ease. at the conclusion of the ceremony, we took photos with her before asking her to pose for a picture with her teacher, mr. race. that photo her last photo ever was taken at approximately 10 54 am. to celebrate. we promised to get her ice cream buddy told her, we loved her and we would pick her up after school. i can still see her walking with us towards the exit in the real that keep scrolling across my memories, she turns her head and smiles back at us to acknowledge my promise. and then we left. i left my daughter at that school and the decision will haunt me

for the rest of my life. afterward felix struck me off at my office the you know, the leader news and returned home because it was a rare day off for him between normal shifts and security gigs. he takes to help mackenzie i got situated on my desk and began writing about a new business in town. when the news office started hearing commotion on the police, get her a shooting on dia street near rob elementary. it wasn't long before he received word from my son's teacher that they were safe, secure in the classroom. once evacuated from campus, the children were united with parents and guardians, at the civic center. my dad picked up julian from the civic center and took him to my grandmother's house. one of our rob kids was safe. we focused on finding lexi bus after bus arrived,

but she wasn't on board. we heard there were children at the local hospital, so he drove over to provide her description. she wasn't there. my dad drove an hour and a half to san antonio to check with the university hospital. at this point, some pardon me, mister. realised that she was gone. then mister k. s i had the urge to return to rob. we didn't have our car at this point and traffic was everywhere. so i ran, i ran barefoot with my flimsy sandals in my head. around a mile to the school has been with me. we sat outside for a while before it became clear, we wouldn't receive an answer from law enforcement unseen. san antonio firefighter eventually gave us to ride back to the civic center, where the district was asking all families who had not been reunited with their children together. soon after we received the news that our daughter was

among the 19 students into teachers that died as a result again. but we don't want you to think of lexie as just a number. she was intelligent, compassionate athletic. she was quiet shy unless she had a point to make which she was right. she saw and was told her where she was firm direct boy suddenly. so today we stand for lexi and as her voice we demand action. we seek a baron on assault rifles in high capacity magazines. we understand that for some reason, to some people, to people with money to people who fun political campaigns. the guns are more important than children. so at this moment, we ask for progress. we seek to raise the age to purchase these weapons from 18 to

21 years of age. we seek red flag loss stronger background checks. we also want to repeal gun manufacturers liability in unity. we've all seen glimpses of who lexy was, but i also want to tell you a little bit about who she would have been if given the opportunity lexi would have made a positive change in this world. she wanted to attend st. mary's university in san antonio, texas on a softball scholarship. she wanted to major in math and go on to attend law school . that opportunity was taken from her. she was taken from us. i'm a reporter, a student, a mom, a runner. i read to my children since they were in the will. my husband is a law enforcement officer in iraq war veteran in las, fishy, and our babies. so are out there. there is

a mom listening to our testimony, thinking i can't even imagine their pay. not knowing that our reality will one day be hurt unless we act. now. thank you for your time. thank you for your testimony. miss hughes, you are now recognized for your testimony. hon chairwoman maloney ranking member commer distinguished members of the committee. thank you for allowing me to be here today to address the violence in our country. my name is lucretia hughes, clark and i have 4 children and 9 grand children. on the night of april, the 2nd 2016, my family got a phone call that would change our lives forever. my ex husband,

answer the phone and let out a blood curdling scream. a scream of pain from the depths of his so he screamed, he cry, he is gone. he is gone. r 19 year old son emmanuel, went to a party early that night. after we got the call, we was frantic. we called his phone. no one answered. we called even the police. i went to facebook and i had to add, is my son did? i found out that he was shot point blake in the head and killed while playing dominos. no one spoke up for weeks, and the killer was on the run. no one was going to snitch, but that is the st. life wires came. describe how hard it is, the barrier chow, i for any one and all who have been done the same. my son, death was

a result of a criminal with an evil heart and a justice system felon cha whole him accountable for the laws he had already broken . you see, a convicted felon killed my son with an ill legally obtain gone. our gun control, lobbyists and politicians claim that their policies will save lives and reduce violence. well, those policies did not save my son. the law was being discussed are already implemented in cities across this country. we have decades of evidence proving they do not work. st. louis, new york, chicago, washington, atlanta, are gun control utopias. and they are plagued with the most violent.

tinmore allows 20 more laws. a 1000 more won't make what has already illegal more wrong or stop criminals from committing these crimes. and y'all are delusional. if you think it's going to keep us say i am a walking testimony of how the criminal justice system and a gun controls. * which is state and racism by the way, have failed the black community. by the age of 25, i had already went to 18 young black man funeral. at the age of 25, i have won the black men in jail. one black man in the grey and my young grandson, gumby res. what are the father and is a curse on the black community and everyone else's somethin has to

change. thoughts and prayers and calls for more gun control isn't enough. how about letting me defend myself from evil? ah, you don't think that i'm capable, untrustworthy, to handle a firearm. you don't think that the 2nd amendment doesn't apply to people that look like me. who and you, who are called for more gun controls are the same ones that are call into the find the police who is the problem to protect us. we must prepare to be our own 1st responders to protect ourselves and our loved ones. i am a legal law biden citizen and i don't need the government to save me. i teach people how to use a firearm. i am power,

others to look at me to understand the 2nd amendment is there, right? i am a proud member of the d. c. project women for gun rice, we believe that education is the key, the safety not in effect of legislation. we support a meaningful solutions that will actually save life. we support the same student egg h, r, 7415, which would immediately make school safer. in hindsight, a parkland without failure of the government and every level fell in the student's student, sol, something. and they said something. and the school did not at police were called to his residence over 30 times and they did not act. and

finally, but police did not go into their school that fateful day and failed to protect those kids. we need to secure our secure our schools and we got to secure this building or like y'all do, what's the difference? we go on congress tub bag, gun free zones, fine, non partisan fire arms education programs like kids, safe foundation and non governmental mental health organizations like a hold my guns, an enclosed in our claim that nothing in these bills do anything to make a safer or dressed a mental health crisis in this country, despite living with the hard 8th of losing my son on a daily basis. i believe it is our god given right to defend ourselves from any

act of violence. making it more difficult or even more expensive for me. and people that looked like me and other law abiding citizens will not make us safer. it will in bowden, but criminals, gun owners are not the enemies. and these gun control policies are not the solution. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you all for your powerful and meaningful and gut wrenching testimony. ah, we will now pause, sir, you are excused and we will pause while we seat the next panel for their testimony . this is al jazeera.