Shooting victim and former U.S. representative Gabby Giffords arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about gun control on January 30, 2013.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
There was drama and division on Capitol Hill today in the first Congressional hearing on gun control since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last month. Former Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. It's been two years since she was gunned down in a mass shooting in Tucson Arizona. Here's part of what she had to say:
"This is an important conversation for our children and our communities - for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult but I need to say something important: violence is a big problem."
From quite another perspective, the Nation Rifle Association's executive vice president Wayne LaPierre testified, saying that Americans need to hold onto their guns now more than ever: "The immediate protection for all, not just some of our school children, is what's needed."
Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, has been following the hearings from Capitol Hill.
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Comments [1]
My hands are raised above my head. I see no way out of guns being in control in this country. I feel it is a hopeless battle.
I am ready to concede to the NRA. Eventually, all schools with have a metal detector machines and prison locked doors for getting in and out. I can see going to pick up my kids in a couple of years and the guard saying,"There was a food fight in the lunchroom and the school is in a lock-down."
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