The House Had Its First Gun Hearing in Years. The Parents of Parkland Victims Refused to Let the GOP Lie.

“We haven’t stopped being any less emotional.”

March for Our Lives student supporters listen during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Wednesday.Jose Luis Magana/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Wednesday, the House held its first hearing on gun violence since 2011. The flurry of mass shootings and federal inaction on the issue in the interceding years had created pent-up frustration, which erupted into full view Wednesday from Democrats and a packed room of gun violence victims and activists—especially when Republicans and GOP witnesses pushed unsubstantiated claims about gun violence.

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who represents Parkland, interrupted witness testimony to correct Joyce Lee Malcolm, a law professor and gun rights expert appearing on behalf of Republicans, when she said that Stoneman Douglas High School decided arming teachers was “the best way to protect students.” (It was a state-appointed commission that recommended the Florida Legislature allow teachers to carry concealed weapons.) Deutch vigorously shook his head and mouthed, “No way,” as Malcolm spoke. “When important declarations are factually wrong, it’s important to call them out,” he said when she finished speaking, a gesture that broke with the hearing’s parliamentary procedure.

“When you go more than eight years without a single hearing despite the regular slaughter of Americans all across the country, it’s important that when the debate finally starts that there’s honesty in it,” Deutch told Mother Jones after the hearing.

Wednesday’s hearing, titled “Preventing Gun Violence: A Call to Action,” had no particular agenda. Though Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill to implement background checks for all gun sales—the Democratic House’s first gun-related priority—the hearing was not a formal discussion of that pending legislation. Instead, it was structured as an opportunity for lawmakers to hear from gun violence prevention experts and activists who have not had a chance to air their grievances in the House in almost a decade.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), another ardent gun control defender, also chimed in to correct falsehoods. When Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) argued the baseless claim that gun violence perpetrated by undocumented immigrants is a more pressing danger than gun loopholes, Cicilline cut him off. “Is there any committee rule that prevents a member of Congress from reciting false statements in a committee hearing that are unsupported by the evidence?” he asked chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). “Are members of Congress allowed to just make things up?” The gallery—at least half of which was composed of March for Our Lives student activists—broke out in applause. (House rules prohibit audience members from making noise during a hearing.)

But it was the family members of the Parkland victims who offered the most vocal fact checks. When Gaetz said building a wall at the southern border would offer a promising solution to gun violence, Manny Oliver, who lost his son Joaquin in last year’s massacre, stood up and screamed, “You lie!” at Gaetz. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was also killed, joined him, yelling to remind Gaetz that their children had been killed by an American male. Capitol Police reprimanded Guttenberg and Oliver for their outburst.

It was familiar territory for Guttenberg: He was escorted out of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he tried to shake the nominee’s hand. “Here’s the thing: We haven’t stopped being any less emotional. Especially this week—it’s all coming back,” Guttenberg told me right after the exchange. “That performance, to make this hearing about something else—you have all the families sitting here! Don’t do that!”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate