WATCH: Congressman Maxwell Frost Slams Oversight Hearing Aimed at Distracting From Truth About Gun Violence
WASHINGTON, DC — Watch as Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (FL-10) slams an Oversight Subcommittee Hearing on “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment” which empowered Republican members to make false claims about gun regulation and eventually led to the Chair throwing out Manny and Patricia Oliver, parents who lost their son Joaquin Oliver to gun violence at the hands of the Parkland High School shooting.
Watch Congressman Frost’s Powerful Remarks Here
In part Rep. Frost said:
“This [hearing] is about everything.
“It’s about victims. It’s about the [pistol] brace. It’s about the families.
“It’s about the fact that if you have a child in this country, and God-forbid, they die before the age of 18, the most likely reason is because they were shot to death…
“I planned on acknowledging three people, both of them are not in this room anymore. Folks who I’ve worked with and who I know – Manny and Patricia Oliver, who lost their son Joaquin Oliver in the Parkland shooting.
“To lose a child to gun violence. To see the photos of your child sitting in a pool of blood… I can’t imagine that.
“Manny and Patricia have dedicated their lives to fighting for a world where true justice can be achieved, because unfortunately, there is no justice for the dead. And true justice is ensuring that this can never happen again.
“I fight alongside Manny and Patricia Oliver, I believe that they are American heroes. And what they always say is that they don’t want their son, Joaquin, to be remembered as a victim, they want him to be remembered as an activist.
“And today, Republicans on this committee choose to sit in front of those parents, and the survivors and organizers, and advocates that are in the audience right now – people who are reliving their trauma listening to this, people impacted by gun violence across the nation… and show that their priority is gun lobby money, manufacturers who profit off deaths, and creating fake narratives for political gain.
“Again, the leading cause of death for kids in America is guns, and today’s hearing is about distracting the people from the truth.
“They want you to believe that the greater threat is the ATF and not the facts that are in front of us.”
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