As Congress once again questions the nature of the gun violence epidemic in the United States following several mass shootings events, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced this week that it will hold a hearing on gun violence with testimony from a survivor, police, educators, and parents of victims from the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings.
There have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2022, including the events at Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y. In New York, the shooting was a racially-motivated and planned attack that saw an 18-year-old gunman arm himself with a semiautomatic rifle and open fire at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black area, killing 10 and seriously injuring three more. Less than two weeks later, another 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers.
“Our hearing will examine the terrible impact of gun violence and the urgent need to rein in the weapons of war used to perpetrate these crimes,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, said. “It is my hope that all my colleagues will listen with an open heart as gun violence survivors and loved ones recount one of the darkest days of their lives. This hearing is ultimately about saving lives, and I hope it will galvanize my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass legislation to do just that.”
Earlier this year, the committee released preliminary findings of a three-year investigation into dealers selling guns used in crimes. Those findings showed that a small number of gun dealers, primarily from states with lax gun laws, have an outsized impact on crime, selling thousands of guns used in violent crimes. The committee has since dispatched letters to gun manufacturers Bushmaster Firearms Industries, Inc., Daniel Defense, LLC, Sig Sauer, Inc., Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., and Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., requesting information on the manufacture, marketing, and sale of their weapons, to inform understanding of how those guns might be fueling gun violence.
The goal of the upcoming June 8 hearing will ultimately be to push legislation to ban assault weapons and strengthen background checks on gun purchases without infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, the committee stressed.