it's flexible if we need to cancel. cancel. i haven't left the house in years. nothing will stop me from vacation. no canceling. (laughs) flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. good morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. spa civic here in los angeles, i'm jose diaz-balart. right now on capitol hill a critical hearing as a national debate around how to handle the gun violence crisis in this country grows. any moment survivors and parents of the victims from the robb elementary school massacre and the racist shooting at a buffalo grocery store will be testifying right there in front of lawmakers to highlight the urgent need for solutions. among the survivors we will hear from this morning a fourth grader who lived through the uvalde rampage.

mia cerillo covered herself in her friend's blood, pretended to be dead so that she could survive. the hearing comes as pressure mounts on u.s. lawmakers to address a recent string of mass shootings. this afternoon the house will vote on a set of bills that would raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic weapon from 18 to 21, ban high capacity magazines and crack down on ghost gun purchases or guns that are not traceable. the bill is unlikely to garner republican support, but a different story is unfolding in the senate where the top democratic negotiator of a bipartisan package of gun bills says a deal could be reached by the end of this week. some issues on the table include addressing mental health, expanding background checks, providing incentives for states to implement red flag laws and strengthening school security. the calls for lawmakers to act got a boost on tuesday afternoon when actor matthew mcconaughey a uvalde native made an emotional

plea from the white house briefing room for both sides to come together and address this crisis. >> maite wore green high top converse with a heart she had hand drawn on the right toe because they represented her love of nature. kamala has got these shoes. wore these every day. green converse with a heart on the right toe. these are the same green converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting. how about that. >> meanwhile n uvalde a community still consumed by grief. this afternoon 10-year-old annabelle rodriguez will be laid to rest. her family described her as a curious child and loved playing with her twin sister, she adored the family dog and wanted to

become a veterinarian. joining us with more is capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. mitch mcconnell says he's open to policy changes. what can you tell us? >> reporter: look, there is a lot going on here. on the senate side we have continued negotiations on a gun package that can hopefully get 60 votes, the senate and the senate republicans have been the obstacle to passing gun-related legislation going back to the aftermath of sandy hook but negotiators on both sides have been telling me and our team that they are now closer than ever to getting to some kind of deal on gun legislation, even mitch mcconnell has apparently our reporting indicates been privately telling people that he could be open to raising the age limit for buying these assault-style weapons nationwide from 18 to 21. now, i do not believe based on our reporting that that's going to be in the final package, but it speaks to the changing

dynamics here that might make passing something possible. josé, we are also obviously very focused this morning on this oversight committee hearing that you've been talking about that's going to begin in just a few minutes. for our viewers, i expect this is going to be a difficult hearing to watch, the committee has sent out the transcripts, the prepared remarks of some of those speakers including the family of lexi rubio who was killed in the shooting, hearing from her mother who said she ran a mile in her bare feet to the school on that day to try to find her daughter. i say this to sort of barn people that there is emotional weight to what we're going to be hearing in this oversight hearing today and there is a reason for that. the house also is going to act today, they're going to vote on a series of gun bills but it will be the senate that's going to have to finish the job here. keeping that emotional spotlight up is going to be so important and it's frankly part of the role of that. to discuss all of this a little

bit further i want to bring in democratic congresswoman silvia garcia a democrat from texas. you are not part of this hearing today but i know you will be watching it just as closely as i am and as our viewers are. what's the value? what do you hope that the stories of these survivors and these victims can show to the american people and can show to lawmakers who have to make decisions about these issues? >> well, i think it's important that everyone hear directly from them because we can all read about it, we can watch it on tv but hearing these stories from their very own -- in their very own words is critical. and you're right, it's going to be gut wrenching to hear from one of the victims, one who reportedly, you know, took the blood from one of her friends, best friends, and just smeared it on her and pretended to be dead to protect herself. i mean, that's just huge and i would suggest if people aren't

-- are going to be watching to bring out their kleenex. i know it will be tough for me. >> we ask too much, i think, for these survivors and victims to come talk about these things and nothing gets done. about that, the house is going to vote today on a package of gun legislation that goes much further than what the senate is discussing, raising age limits, expanding background checks. if you wait for the senate to pass something you would be waiting and have been waiting a long time. what's the message you are hoping to send to the country and the other chamber down the street by passing this legislation today? >> quite simply they need to get off their duff and do something. we've been waiting for 23 years since sandy hook. the senate has done nothing on this issue. the house has passed four bills already, they've already got a background check bill we passed last year. we need to look at raising the age for purchasing of automatic weapons, we need to have background checks, we need to have a red flag law.

there's just so many things to get done and people are demanding it. people want action. they're tired of the talk, they're tired of the division. they want us to work together to protect children's lives. that's what's at stake here. gun violence is the first biggest cause of death in children. this is about children. we're not going to do this for anyone else, this is a time to do it, to make sure that our children can live and live with full intention. >> to what do you attribute the recalls trans on the other side of the aisle on this issue? when you look at background checks, expanding age limits, these are 80/20 issues in the country where 80% don't agree on anything. nra is not what it used to be in terms of political power. >> i think it's still the nra, it's still the gun owners of america, it's the fear of retaliation as was done with the

congressman who announced last week that he was going to just suspend his race. >> in buffalo. >> yeah, because he had decided that he was going to vote for this package and people just retaliated against him. it's fear. it's the donations. it's the hot button issue. and they don't want to give joe biden a win or the democrats a win. it's just horrific that we're putting political issues ahead of children's lives. we're putting the nra before children's lives. we're putting our own political careers before children's lives. people need to act, people are demanding it and we need to do it now. >> what should we understand about the senate negotiations? we have john cornyn your senior senator, texas republican, who is leading the negotiations on the republican side, he and ted cruz have gone in very different directions on this, but i think a lot of our viewers are watching wondering if they can

trust that john corn be is going to be, you know, a good faith negotiating partner here. we know he's not going to give democrats everything they want but what do you make as you watch the negotiations in the other chamber? >> i've known the senior senator for a long time, we were both judges at the same time back in texas. i have a lot of respect for him. i hope that he listens, i hope that he listens to the people of texas and the cry of the children, he listens to the testimony today and that he is motivated because it's important to make the changes that are necessary to ensure that this doesn't happen again and it starts with raising the age, it starts with background checks and it starts with the red flag law. there's so many other things we could do, but for me those are the three priorities and i think texans want that. i'm a gun owner, i own a gun. >> a lot of folks in texas are. >> i'm from texas, i know how to hunt and i know how to shoot, but that is for me and for my protection at my house, it's for

protecting my property. we are not talking about those type of guns. we are talking about military-style assault weapons. in texas i tell all my friends it's not about your gun that you use for hunting. i don't know too many people that hunt with an ar-15. that has got to stop. >> congresswoman, josé has a question for you which you do not have an earpiece in, josé, i will bring this across if you want to share your question i will ask the congresswoman. >> thank you very much and thank the congresswoman for your time. just the other day we spoke with judge salas and she is advocating for an act the daniel anderl law that would protect federal judges' information from being widespread and easy to find. we've seen the attack on judges

recently. >> reporter: josé the other day was discussing a federal law about protecting information about federal judges, we saw this attack on the federal judge the other day, the second time in recent memory we have seen judges targeted, you know, by violent criminals here. is that the kind of thing that the house should be pursuing? what do you think of the legislative future for laws that might protect our judges from violence? >> well, i'm not sure exactly what the intent would be and what -- >> protecting their information, making so somebody is not showing up at their house. >> but there is a way for us -- i used to be a judge, as i said, at the same time with the senior senator from texas was a judge. there's a way for us to protect the information from being public records, already in texas, i don't know if other states do it. it depends on what records we are talking about. >> is the texas model the kind of thing that you would support federally? >> well, of course.

i think it would be important and i think what's important, too, is that we don't do too much because there has to be some accountability and transparency for our actions. i was a district court judge and it amazing me that i had to follow a code of ethics but the supreme court of the united states doesn't have a code of ethics. >> right. >> so i think it's beyond just, you know, disclosure of where they live, it's the whole thing that we need to look at. >> very good. josé, congresswoman garcia from texas, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> josé, obviously we're going to have this very difficult hearing coming up here today and perhaps much more to discuss about the future of this gun legislation in both chambers later on. >> garrett, thank you. i want to thank, again, the congresswoman for being with us. because i want to prepare folks of what we're going to be seeing shortly here on msnbc. and you were saying, garrett, that the testimony you've

already seen is particularly difficult and give us just some indication of what you felt when you read that. >> reporter: well, josé, you and i were both in uvalde, we experienced it on the ground and we talked to folks who lived there and reading through some of this testimony took me right back. we're going to hear from a doctor who rushed to the hospital to treat pediatric patients and to try to identify patients who he found unidentifiable because of the extent of the injuries to their bodies. we're going to hear from parents and we're going to hear from this child who, you know, josé, i mean, i didn't want to interview kids when i was down there. i couldn't do it personally. there was a line -- i couldn't personally bring myself to do it and it's hard and i think it's -- it's going to be very important for folks to listen to these stories because, you know, as we've discussed on the air and as people come to

experience, there have been over the last decade really two types of communities, those who have had something like this happen to them and those who perhaps will in the future and as one turns into the other it gets more real for people. that's what made matthew mcconaughey's comments, i think, partly so powerful and this is not someone who you are used to seeing speak out specifically about policy or about politics, but when it matters to you all of a sudden it matters a great deal and the voices who i think we are going to hear from today might help bridge that gap to make it so that it matters to people a great deal to whom this hasn't happened yet and perhaps hopefully won't happen at all. >> and, garrett, just -- i share with you exactly what you say, it's the most difficult thing in the world to speak to little children who have just gone through the biggest hell that one could ever imagine and then the parents of the victims. she will not -- she's actually there on capitol hill this

morning. >> reporter: that's right. that's right. hers is the testimony that has not been released, it's not something i have had an opportunity to review, so, you know, we are all going to experience this together, josé, and we will see how it goes. >> garrett haake thank you very much. you are seeing in the bottom right of your television that is the hearing getting under way. we will bring you all of it right here on msnbc. meanwhile, in about two hours attorney general merrick garland is expected to announce the team that will conduct a critical incident review of the ufldy shooting, this comes a day after the uvalde city council held a special meeting to extend its emergency declaration without newly elected councilman pete arredondo. he is the police chief who reportedly made the call for police not to go into robb elementary for about an hour and instead treat the situation as a barricaded suspect rather than an active shooter. meanwhile, we're hearing

from uvalde mother who rushed into the school herself when she felt the police weren't acting to save those kids. nbc's morgan chesky joins us from the uvalde memorial site. good morning. you spoke with this mother. what did she tell you? >> reporter: josé, she said plenty, her name is ang a lee gomez, one of the parents who rushed to robb elementary when she heard something was going horrifically wrong. she says she was held at bay by officers while she heard gunshots inside that school. she said at one point when she thought the risk to her child was too much for her to bear, she broke away from the officers, entered one part of the school where she was able to retrieve one son and then another part of the school farther away from where the shooting was taking place to retrieve her younger son and a relative before ushering them to safety at a nearby neighbor's home. i want you to hear her describe in her own words her answer when

i asked her what she witnessed whenever she went to go get her boys. take a listen. >> i didn't see no one cop running with me or no one cop run in there with me. they weren't doing nothing. they did not do anything. i'm telling you they -- they were more brutal on us parents than even going out there to do what they were doing to us outside instead of doing it not shooter. >> reporter: gomez told me that since she has shared her account, her story of what she witnessed last -- that tuesday when the shooting took place, she has received a call from law enforcement informing her that she if she continued to share that account, that story, that she could be facing potential obstruction of justice charges. now, we did reach out to the district attorney christina bus by now overseeing this investigation to ask if she had any response to that. her office has not turned our request for any comment at this

time. this goes to show there are so many questions in this investigation. was arredondo officially named incident commander while the shooting was taking place? if so, did he name himself that or was someone else in charge of that? we're also hearing that there might have been a different breakdown of the agencies and the officers inside this school. and this only goes to create more confusion in this community for parents and people here who are just trying to find out answers and now it's been more than two weeks since this horrific shooting took place and we have yet to have a public comment made by the one person the district attorney now overseeing this investigation. we did find out during that emergency city council meeting, josé, one new detail that could potentially have impacted a chain of command when she is gunshots rang out at robb elementary and that is the fact that the uvalde city police chief not the school police chief pete arredondo but the city chief here in uvalde was on vacation when the shooting took place and he had put a

lieutenant as the acting chief in charge. of course, the chief returned as soon as he heard about the shooting and he was in the community to help assist them in going forward, but in those vie cal moments when the gunshots rang out inside robb elementary we know that there was a school police chief that was the incident commander, no city police chief only a lieutenant acting in his place and you had county sheriff's deputies and border patrol officers on scene for some time before making that decision to go in. of course, the one person who could clear up so much of this confusion, josé, would be pete arredondo and we have not heard from him nor seen him now in at least a week. >> and, morgan, i mean, so -- so when that mother decided to break free of the police officials that were outside that school while the gunman was still inside and still inside shooting, there were very heavily armed officers, morgan, i saw an m-4, i saw a couple of

ar-15s and fully vested. so the people that were outside had the wherewithal to confront that shooter no doubt about it and they were doing crowd control. so now the mother says that she has been called by police, threatened to charge her, but police won't answer your calls, right? >> reporter: josé, just two quick clarifications. the district attorney overseeing this investigation has not returned our calls for comment. and i want to make sure that it was just -- she said a call from authorities, she did not specify which agency contacted her regarding her story. again, you do have multiple agencies here and i think that has created some of the confusion here. you have the school police force, you have a local police force, you have sheriff's deputies and also border patrol agents. we're also hearing there may have been a u.s. marshal on scene as well. we hope to clear up all of these

questions as soon as we're able to ask them. >> stay with it. i appreciate your time. we will continue to watch this hearing on gun violence which is just under way right now on capitol hill as we await what no doubt will be emotional testimony, including from a former fourth grader, right there, in uvalde, texas, who saw and survived the shooting. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports." diaz-balart reports. bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior changes or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, to ask them. and survived the shooting. le mo, to ask them. and survived the shooting. e threatening or permanent.

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we have breaking news right now, let's go to pete williams. pete, what is it? >> josé, we've been told by several law enforcement officials that a man was arrested overnight near the home of supreme court justice breath brett cav gnaw, he was armed with a gun, knife and pepper spray and told authorities that he was there to kill the justice. he was not arrested at the home of the justice, he was arrested nearby. law enforcement officials tell us that the man actually arrived by taxi and was seen by police and other law enforcement officials that were near the justice's house, he was arrested and taken into custody. it's unclear to us right now whether this case is going to be handled by the maryland state authorities or by the u.s. marshals service which provides security for supreme court justices as well as other federal judges or by the fbi,

but the man is said to be from california, he had said -- he had told the police when he was arrested that he wanted to do this, but that's just about all we know right now. the supreme court hasn't had any comment yet about the case, although they're certainly well aware of it. the justice is aware of it. it's been a time of heightened tension around the supreme court and there have been, as you know, some public demonstrations outside justice kavanaugh's house and other members of the court. ever since the leaked opinion of sam alito's draft opinion in the roe v. wade case, the mississippi abortion case, there's been a nonscaleable high fence that's been around the supreme court building itself. it's been a tense time here in washington, a tense time for the court and for the justices. we hope to have more details on this shortly, josé, but to repeat, a man was arrested this morning, we're told it was about

between 1:00 and 1:30 this morning after arriving in a taxi near the home of supreme court justice brett kavanaugh armed with weapons and saying he wanted to kill the justice. >> pete williams, thank you very much. we don't really know -- i know this is breaking news and there's no one who does this better than you, but i just want to know so he was arrested with a gun and pepper spray? >> and a knife, yes. >> and a knife. pete williams, thank you so very much. let's go back now to capitol hill with the testimony that is under way right now. >> zaire the kid is now a 21-year-old man, he is pure joy, he is everything that is good in this world and as i sit here before you today i can hear my son telling me to stop being extra and get to the point. i was going to tell you all a bunch of fluffy funny stories about zaire, but i have a

message so i will get to the point. as director of diversity and inclusion with new york state senator tim kennedy's office stories of gun violence and racism are all too familiar, but now these stories are zaire's stories. these problems literally knocked on my front door. these are issues that as a country we do not like to openly discuss. domestic terrorism exists in this country for three reasons, america is inherently violent. 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. my ancestors brought to america through the slave trade were the first currency of the america. let me say that again for the people in the back. my ancestors the first currency of america were stripped of their heritage and culture, separated from their families, bargained for on auction blocks,

sold, being raped and lynched, yet i continuously hear after every mass shooting that this is not who we are as americans and as a nation. hear me clearly, this is exactly who we are. education. majority of what i have learned about african american history i did not learn until i went to college and i had to choose those classes. why is that? why is african american history not a part of american history? african americans built this country from the ground up. my ancestors' blood is embedded in the soil. we have to change the curriculum in 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 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 terrorist who stormed into my community armed with an ar-15 killing ten people and injuring three others received a shotgun from his parents for his 16th birthday. for zaire's 16th birthday i bought him a few video games, some headphones, a pizza and a cake. we are not the same. 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. lawmakers who continuously allow these mass shootings to continue by not passing stricter gun laws should be voted out.

to the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws, let me paint a picture for you. my son zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back and another on his left leg. caused by an exploding bullet from an ar-15. as i cleaned his wounds 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 zaire and 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 ar-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 two minutes to shoot and kill ten people and injure three others. 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 clean zaire's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and to my community. to the families of ruth whitfield, pearl young, catherine hassy, hayward patterson, geraldine talley, aaron setter, marcus morrison and robert at that drury i promise that their deaths will not be in vain.

i promise to use our voice to lift their names. i know that their collective souls watched out for zaire that day and i'm 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 kensington to fill more 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 east side of buffalo, we will not be broken. i was born there, raised there. i raised my son there, i still live there and i do the majority of my professional work on the east side of buffalo. i vow 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 of the resources that we so greatly need. i promise 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 area, to everyone from around the country and the world who have reached out and loved on us, on behalf of zaire, zaire's father damian goodman, my mother, father, sisters, brothers, and myself, we thank you. we thank you for all of your thoughts and your players. 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 also 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 the change that this country so desperately needs and i will end

with a quote from charles blum 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 to 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 has fallen to black people to do it themselves. and i stand at the ready. zaire, this is for you, kid. happy birthday. >> thank you. dr. guerrero you are now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you. thank you, chairwoman. my name is dr. roy guerrero i'm a board certified pediatrician and was present at uvalde hospital the day of the massacre

at robb elementary school. i was called here today as a witness but i showed up because i am a doctor, because how many years ago i swore an oath, an oath to do no harm. after witnessing firsthand the carnage in my hometown of uvalde, to stay silent would have betrayed that oath and inaction 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 would inspire the members of this house to do theirs. i have lived in uvalde my whole life, in fact, i attended robb elementary school myself as a kid. as often is the case with us grown-ups we remember a lot of the good and not so much of the bad so i don't recall homework or detention, i remember how much i loved going to school. what a joyful time it was. back then we were able to run between classrooms with ease to visit our friends and i remember the way the staff tear i can't

smelled at lunchtime on hamburger thursdays, it was right around lunchtime on a tuesday that a gunman entered the school without restriction, massacred 19 students and two teachers and changed the way that every student at robb and their family remember that school forever. i doubt they will remember the smell of the cafeteria or the laughter ringing in the hallways, instead they will be haunted by the memory of screams and blood shed, panic and chaos, police shouting, parents wailing. i know i will never forget what i saw that day. for me that day started like any typical tuesday in our pediatric clinic, moms calling for coughs, boogers, sports physicals, right before the summer rush. school was out in two days then summer camps would guarantee some grazes, ankle sprains, during that could be patched up and fixed with a mixy mouse band-aid. a colleague from a san antonio trauma center texted me and said

why are pediatric surgeons on call for a mass shooting in uvalde. i raced to the hospital to find parents outside yelling children's names in desperation and sobbing as they begged 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 er. the fisht casualty was mia cerillo, she was sitting in the hallway, her face was in shock but her whole body was shaking from the adrenaline. the white "lilo & stitch" shirt was covered in blood and her shoulder was bleeding from a shrapnel injury. wheat mia, i have known her 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 story today and her bravery. when i saw mia sitting there i remembered having seen her parents outside so after quickly examining two other patients in the hallway with minor injuries i raced outside to let them know

mia was alive. i wasn't ready for their next question. where is he will ain't na. she was also at rob at the time of the shooting. i had heard from some of the nurses there were two dead children who had been moved to the surgical area of the hospital. as i made my way there i prayed that i wouldn't find her. i didn't find alaina but i did find something no prayer will ever relieve. two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart, that the only clue of their identities was a blood spat erred cartoon clothes clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none. i could only hope the two bodies were a tragic exception to the list of survivors but as i waited with my fellow uvalde doctors, nurses, first responders and hospital staff for other casualties we hope to save, they never arrived. all that remained was the bodies

of 17 more children and the two teachers who compared for them, dedicated their careers to nurturing and respecting the awesome potential every single one just as we doctors do. i will tell you why i became a pediatrician, because i knew that children were the best patients, they accept the situation as it's explained 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 are resistance 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 there have been such little progress made in congress to stop gun violence. innocent children all over the country are dead because laws and policies allow people to buy weapons before they are old enough to buy a pack of beer.

they are dead because restrictions have been allowed to lapse, dead because there are no rules about where gun are kept because no one is paying attention to who is buying them. the thing i can't figure out is whether our politicians are failing us out of stubbornness, passivity or both. i said before that as grown-ups we have a convenient habit of remembering the good and forgetting the bad. never more so than when it comes to our guns. once the blood is washed away from the bodies of our loved ones and scrubbed off the floors of the schools and supermarkets and churches, the carnage from each scene is erased from our collective conscious and when return to nostalgia. to the view of our second 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 safe from preventable diseases i can do. keeping them safe from bacterial and brittle 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 the patient. we are lying on the operating table riddled with bullets like the children of robb 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. >> my name is mia cerillo and i go to robb elementary.

we were just watching a movie and then she got an email and then she went to go lock the door and he was in the hallway and they made eye contact and then she went back in the room and she told us go hide, and then we went to go hide behind the teacher's desk and behind the backpacks and then he shot the little window and then he went to the other classroom and then he went -- there is a door between our classrooms and he went through there and shot my

teacher and told my teacher goodnight and shot her in the head and then he shot some of my classmates and the white board. i went to the backpacks, 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 i put it all over me and -- >> what did you do then when you put the blood on yourself? >> just stayed quiet and then i got my teacher's phone and called 911. >> what did you tell 911? >> i told her that we need help and to send the police into our classroom. >> if there was something that you want people to know about

that day and about you or things that you want different, what would it be? >> to have security. >> do you feel safe at school? why not? >> because i don't want it to happen again. >> do you think it's going to happen again? [ nods head ] >> mr. cirillo, you are now recognized. >> hello. hello. today i come because i could have lost my baby girl. she's not the same little girl that i used to play with and run with and do everything because she was daddy's little girl. i have five kids and she's the middle child. i don't know what to do because i think i would have lost my baby girl.

my baby girl is the world not only once but twice she came back to us. she's everything not only for me but her siblings and her mother. thank you for letting me be here and speak out but i wish something would change not only for our kids but every single kid in the world because schools are not safe anymore. something needs to really change. thank you. >> thank you for your testimony. and i understand you are now leaving. we thank you for sharing your story. thank you. and mr. and mrs. rubio, you are now recognized for your testimony. >> i am kimberly rubio, this is lengths rubio, we are the parents of alexandria a naya best known as lexi rubio and

five other children who all attended uvalde public schools through the 2021-2022 school year. clarissa who cleated high school, isaiah who attends uvalde high school, david morales junior high and our two youngest children julian 8 and lexi 10 who attended robb elementary. on the morning of may 24th, 2022 i dropped lexi and julian off at school a little after 7:00 a.m. my husband and i returned to the campus at 8:00 a.m. for julian's award ceremony and again at 10:30 a.m. for lexi's award ceremony. lexi received the good citizen award and was also recognized for receiving all as. at the confusion of the ceremony we took photos with her before asking her to pose for a picture with her teacher mr. reyes. that photo, her last photo ever was taken at approximately 10:54

a.m. to celebrate we promised to get her ice cream that evening, told her we loved her and we would pick her up after school. i can still see her walking with us toward the exit. in the -- i keep scrolling across my memories, she turns her head and smiles back us at us to acknowledge my promise and then we left. i left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life. afterward felix dropped here off at my office the uvalde leader news and returned home because it was a rare day off for him between normal shifts and security gigs he takes to help make ends meet. i got situated at my desk and began writing about a new business in town when the news office started hearing commotion on the police scanner, a shooting on diaz street near

robb elementary. it wasn't long before we received word from my son's teacher that they were safe, secure in the classroom. once evacuated from campus the children were reunited 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 robb 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 we drove over to provide her description. she wasn't there. my dad drove an hour and a half to san antonio to check with university hospital. at this point some part of my must have realized that she was gone in the midst of chaos i had the urge to return to robb. 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 hand.

i ran a mile to the school, my husband with me. we sat outside for a while before it became clear we wouldn't receive an answer from law enforcement on scene. san antonio firefighter eventually gave us a ride back to the civic center where the district stayed for a while but became clear we wouldn't receive an answer from the officers on scene. we went back to the school where everyone who could not find their children were told to gather. soon we got the news that our daughter was one of the 19 students killed as a result of gun violence. we don't want you to think of lexi as just a number. she was intelligent, compassionate, athletic. she was quiet, shy unless she had a point to make. when she was right, she so often

was and stood her ground. she was direct. so today we stand for lexi, and with her voice we demand action. we want you to ban high-capacity magazines. we understand that for some people, people with money, people who fund political campaigns that guns are more important than children. 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 laws, stronger background checks. we also want to repeal gun manufacturers' liability and immunity. you've all seen glimpses of who lexi was, but i also want to tell you 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 go on to law school. that opportunity was taken from her. she was taken from us. i'm a reporter, a student, a mom, a runner. i've read to my children since they were in the womb. my husband is a law enforcement officer. he loves fishing and our babies. somewhere out there, there is a mom listening to our testimony thinking, i can't even imagine their pain. not knowing that our reality will one day be hers unless we act now. thank you for your time. >> thank you for your testimony.

miss hughes, you are now recognized for your testimony. >> honorable chairwoman maloney, ranking member comer, distinctive members of the the committee, thank you for allowing me here to talk about our country. i have two children and four grandchildren. on the night of this happening, we got a call. my husband cried from the depths of his soul. he screamed, he's gone. our 19-year-old son emmanuel went to a party that night. after we got the call, we were frantic. we called his phone, no one

answered. we called the police. i went to facebook and i had to ask, is my son dead? i found out he was shot point blank in the head and killed while playing dominoes. no one spoke up for weeks and the killer was on the run. no one was going to snitch, but that is the street life. words can't describe how hard it is to bury a child. i ache for anyone and all who have done the same. my son's death was a result of a criminal with an evil heart and a justice system failing to hold him accountable for the laws he had already broken. you see, a convicted felon killed my son with an illegally obtained gun. 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 laws 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, atlant are gun control utopias, and they are plagued with the most violence. ten more laws, 20 more laws, 1,000 more won't make what is already illegal stop criminals from committing these crimes, and you're all delusional if you think it's going to keep us safe. 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. by the age of 25, i had already went to 18 young black men's funerals at the age of 25. i have one black man in jail, one black man in the grave, and my young grandson is going to be raised without a father. and it's a curse on the black community and everyone else's. something has to change. thoughts and prayers and calls for more gun control isn't enough. how about letting me defend myself from evil? you don't think that i'm capable and trustworthy to handle a firearm. you don't think the second amendment doesn't apply to

people who look like me? you who have called for more gun control are the ones who have failed the police. who is supposed to protect us? we must prepare to be our own first responders to protect ourselves and our loved ones. i am a legal law-abiding citizen and i don't need the government to save me. i teach people how to use a firearm. i empower others to look at me to understand the second amendment is their right. i am a proud member of the d.c. project, women for gun rights. we believe that education is the key to safety, not ineffective legislation. we support meaningful solutions

that will actually save lives. we support the safe student act, hr7415, which would immediately make schools safer. in hindsight, at parkland, we saw failure of the government at every level failing the students. students saw something and they said something. and the school did not act. police were called to his residence over 30 times and they did not act. and finally, the police did not go into the school that fateful day and failed to protect those kids. we need to secure our schools, and we got to secure this building like y'all do. what's the difference? we call on congress to ban guns.

fund education programs like kids' foundations and mental health organizations like hold my guns. and in closing, i claim that nothing in these bills do anything to make us safer or address the mental health crisis in this country despite living with the heartache 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 look like me and other law-abiding citizens will not make us safer. it will embolden the 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. we will now pause. you are excused, and we will pause while we seat the next panel for their testimony. >> reporter: and while they seat the next panel which we will, of course, be monitoring and we will keep you, of course, informed of every single thing happening at that capitol hill hearing, what an emotional, gut-wrenching hearing. garrett haake is back with us from capitol hill. garrett, you were telling us before we witnessed this how difficult part of this testimony that we are going to hear was, and indeed, you were right. the pediatrician, the parents of