WASHINGTON — Newly empowered House Democrats convened the first congressional hearing on gun violence in nearly a decade Wednesday, setting the stage for likely passage of gun control legislation sponsored by a Bay Area lawmaker. If Wednesday’s hearing is any indication, it’s going to be an emotional journey. From the outset, the testimony of the witnesses before the House Judiciary Committee was moving and personal. The first person to speak was Aalayah Eastmond, a survivor of the mass shooting last February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who detailed her experience hiding under the body of a slain classmate to avoid the killer’s bullets. “Enough,” said Eastmond, now a senior at the school. “We have all had enough. I hope you have had enough, too, and use the power the people have vested in you to do what is right. Our lives depend on you; our lives are in your hands.” Eastmond received a standing ovation from a crowd stocked with gun control advocates, prompting committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York to remind audience members that they could not interrupt the hearing. Other witnesses who offered personal testimony included an activist and organizer from Chicago, Diane Latiker, who opens her home to at-risk youths; Johns Hopkins Hospital trauma surgeon and anti-gun violence activist Dr. Joseph Sakran, himself a survivor of a gunshot wound; a Baltimore police domestic violence unit commander, Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper; and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. Republicans invited a sexual assault survivor and gun rights advocate, Savannah Lindquist, who argued a case for a right to self-defense that she says she was denied because of campus gun bans. Included on the committee also were members who have been touched by gun violence. Newly elected Democratic Reps. Lucy McBath of Georgia and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Florida each spoke of loved ones who had been shot to death. McBath’s son was killed in an argument over loud music, prompting her to become an activist, and Mucarsel-Powell’s father was gunned down in Ecuador when she was in her 20s. “Far too many families experience tragedy like ours every single day. The pain of losing a child to gun violence never ends,” McBath said. “Our community and our nation cannot wait any longer.” The hearing served as a precursor to a fight over legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, that would expand the requirement for background checks of gun purchasers to those buying firearms in private sales. Those would include gun shows and online sales. His bill is likely to become the first major gun control measure to pass either chamber of Congress in several years, now that Democrats are in the House majority. Thompson, who is not a Judiciary Committee member, watched from the audience as the panel’s Democrats praised his legislation and Republicans argued against it, though five GOP House members are co-sponsors of the bill. Republicans argued that the bill would mainly be an added burden for legal gun buyers and sellers and that criminals would simply ignore it. They repeatedly made the case, as Lindquist did, that access to guns is important for self-defense. “Because of so-called common-sense gun laws, I was left defenseless that night,” Lindquist testified, recounting an attack that occurred while she was a Temple University student. “I obeyed the law as a responsible gun owner, and it ended in me being raped.” The committee’s top Republican, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, said Congress’ anti-gun violence efforts would be better directed at boosting access to mental health treatment. “These are the things that we can continue to find common ground — at the same time not offering a palliative exercise to say, ‘Here’s something that will make you feel better but not help you in the end,’ ” Collins said. But Democrats signaled they would be gearing up for far more than the background check legislation, which could move toward a vote by the end of the month but faces an uphill climb in the Republican-controlled Senate. Witnesses and Democratic lawmakers also made the case for a federal law that would allow a court to confiscate guns from people who are a potential danger to themselves or others, similar to a law in California. They also argued for increasing funding to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to enforce gun laws, and removing a prohibition on federal funding for research on guns as a public health problem. Although much of the attention at Wednesday’s hearing was on mass shootings, witnesses also noted that gun violence disproportionately affects minority communities and escalates many cases of domestic violence. Eastmond, the Parkland survivor, said she has focused her activism on “the elephant in the room,” to “share the platform I didn’t ask to have with those marginalized communities.” She told lawmakers, “Black and brown youth are disproportionally impacted by gun violence … and we cannot continue to have hearings and not address those issues.” That sentiment was echoed by Latiker, the Chicago activist, who said in response to a lawmaker’s question, “As I sit here, I listen to the back and forth about gun violence and to me it leaves out the most important part, and that’s those who have to deal with it on a daily basis.” Communities that are most affected by gun violence, Latiker said, are always “talked around.” She opens her home on the South Side of Chicago as a community center for neighborhood children and founded an organization to help youths find an alternative to gang activity. But she said it’s hard to get support. “Nobody wants to help because of the color of their skin or where they come from or where they live at, or the conditions,” Latiker said. “You’re fighting a losing battle not only to give hope to the people you’re trying to help, but to the community you live in because they believe that the violence is more prevalent than the hope is.” Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan<doc-sep>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives began moving toward tighter gun regulations on Wednesday, holding the first congressional hearing in years on how to stem the epidemic of gun violence that claimed the lives of nearly 40,000 Americans in 2017. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) arrives for a private deposition to the House Judiciary and House Government and Oversight committees by former FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee focused on a bipartisan bill called the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would require background checks for all firearm sales and most firearm transfers. It has 230 House co-sponsors, including five Republicans. “Despite the obvious need to address the source of gun violence, Congress, for too long, has done virtually nothing. But now, we begin a new chapter,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat. Democrats won control of the House in the November elections after eight years of Republican rule, partly because of public frustration over the inability of Congress to address a growing number of mass shootings at schools and other public venues. Wednesday’s hearing took place a week ahead of the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 students and staff and launched a national youth movement that has reignited the long-running U.S. debate over gun rights. But there was no sign that any gun legislation approved by the Democratic House majority would gain traction in the Republican-controlled Senate. Witnesses at the hearing also called for legislation to address gun trafficking between states, a ban against assault rifles, the repeal of a federal law that protects the gun industry from lawsuits, and increased funding for federal officials charged with policing the flow of firearms across the country. The U.S. Constitution protects the right of Americans to bear arms. The measure is fiercely defended by Republicans, who on Wednesday warned that new legislation could lead to a national gun registry and claimed that expanded background checks would not protect people from gun crime. “The greatest cruelty in the world is to tell people you will help in their situation with legislation and then try to pass off legislation that would do nothing,” said Representative Doug Collins, the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican. “In legal terms, that’s called fraud.” Witnesses said the legislation would close loopholes exploited by online gun dealers and those who purchase guns for others unwilling or unable to buy their own. “This bill will definitely save lives,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told lawmakers. Of the close to 40,000 deaths from gun violence in 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in December that 60 percent were self-inflicted.<doc-sep>“I hope we do not forget the pain, and anguish, and sense of loss felt by those all over the country who have been the victims of violence at the hands of illegal aliens,” Gaetz said. He claimed that H.R. 8 would not have prevented the crimes but that a wall at the southern border, such as the one proposed by President Trump, would have.<doc-sep>Rep. Lucy McBath (right) was elected in November in a blue wave that has helped drive the Democratic party's most aggressive push to strengthen gun laws in decades. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images congress 'Renewed sense of hope': Dems seize moment to push gun control measures Rep. Lucy McBath — whose teenage son was shot to death in 2012 — could have been sitting on the witness stand on Wednesday. Instead, the Georgia Democrat spoke about her son’s slaying from her own seat among lawmakers at the House’s first gun-specific hearing in 12 years. “As many of you know, gun violence is an issue that is deeply personal to me,” McBath said in a dramatic moment in the packed room, which fell silent as she spoke. She told the committee room that her son, Jordan, would have turned 24 this month. “It’s in that pain that drives me to do this work to prevent gun violence,” McBath said, using extra speaking time that was given to her by a more senior member of the panel. McBath was elected in November in a blue wave that has helped drive the Democratic Party's most aggressive push to strengthen gun laws in decades. After years of resistance from Republicans and even inaction from Democratic leaders, the House now plans to vote on a spate of gun restrictions in the first 100 days of its new majority. Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Democrats had the conversation Wednesday that they’ve wanted to have since the elementary school shooting in Newtown — and the theater shooting in Aurora, the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, the nightclub shooting in Orlando, the concert shooting in Las Vegas and the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla. It’s the House’s first hearing on gun legislation since 2007, though Democrats also held a forum on gun violence in Chicago in 2010. For nearly four hours and counting, the hearing room was packed with advocates who had lost family members, friends or classmates, or had survived gun violence themselves. In all, more than a dozen Democrats spoke in favor of tighter policies, including background checks and assault weapons bans. At times, it resembled a political rally: dozens of people — mostly students — packed into the room burst into applause after particularly poignant statements from Democrats or witnesses. Multiple times, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler had to remind the crowd not to clap. One audience member who yelled out during the hearing was nearly ejected after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) went off topic to make the case for a border wall to prevent crime by undocumented immigrants: “If we really cared about safer streets, we would build a wall and secure the border,” he said as tension began to build in the room. For the first time in years, Democrats delighted in going on the offense: House Democratic Conference Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) needled one of the GOP's witnesses, a law school professor at George Mason University, whose position is funded by the National Rifle Association. "The NRA has given $1 million to endow a position that you now hold," Jeffries said, as some in the crowd laughed. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), chairman of the House’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, sat in on the hearing after years of demanding action from House GOP leaders. “This is the first time that this issue has been taken up in the hearing process, so it’s understandably an emotional afternoon,” Thompson said during a short break after watching the hearing, where he was repeatedly cheered by other Democrats during their remarks. What was largely left out of the hours-long discussion, however, is the lack of support from the Senate. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said he felt a "renewed sense of hope" after the historic hearing. But he and his colleagues didn't address the GOP-controlled Senate that has no interest in taking up any of the House's gun restrictions. After last year's deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Trump's own televised comments in favor of background checks and even an assault weapons ban began to stoke the possibility of bipartisan action. But Trump later changed course.<doc-sep>
In the House’s first congressional hearing on gun violence prevention in almost a decade, tensions flared between the father of a Parkland high school shooting victim and a Florida lawmaker. During the meeting, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said illegal immigration, not guns, is a major factor behind acts of public violence that have plagued the nation over the past two decades. The hearing took place one week before the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida which left 17 people dead and more than a dozen injured. Proposed legislation, currently in committee, would impose universal background checks on gun sales. “As we hear the stories and circumstances for those here, I hope we do not forget the pain and anguish and sense of loss felt by those all over the country who have been the victims of violence at the hands of illegal aliens,” Gaetz said. The proposed legislation "would not have stopped the many of the circumstances I raised. But a wall, a barrier on the southern border may have.” These comments elicited boos from the gallery and prompted Manuel Oliver to yell “That’s not true,” according to those in the audience. Oliver’s son, Joaquin, was 17 when he was killed. (MORE: 17 killed in mass shooting at high school in Parkland, Florida) Gaetz continued his line of discussion and Oliver interrupted him at least two more times. Gaetz then petitioned Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to remove Oliver from the gallery. Nadler declined to eject Oliver, saying the choice fell to his discretion. He warned the gallery against further interruption. (MORE: 4-year-old boy accidentally shoots pregnant mom, baby not hurt: Sheriff) “It is never permissible for members of the audience to comment or to vociferously object,” said Nadler. “This is a hearing for members of Congress and the witnesses. Everyone else is here as an observer.” Rep. David Cicilline also fired back at Gaetz. "Is there any committee rule a member of Congress from reciting false statements in a committee hearing that are unsupported by evidence?" Cicilline asked of the chairman. "Or are members of Congress entitled to make things up in support of specious arguments?" His questions were met with applause, with standing ovations from a handful of people in the room. The gallery was filled with members of the March for Our Lives movement, the organization that grew from the survivors of the Parkland shooting. A Twitter video from showed members lining up outside the hearing room two hours before it was scheduled to begin. The night before, the president made no mention of gun violence prevention in his State of the Union address.