Gun control activist David Hogg on Wednesday was escorted out of a House Judiciary Committee after he shouted at lawmakers working to finalize a bill that would ban military-style rifles.
Mr. Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, berated the Congress members for ignoring what he described as the racist underpinnings of the shooting attacks.
“You’re reiterating the points of mass shooters in your manifesto. The shooter in my high school: antisemitic, anti-Black and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion,” he said.
“Guess what? Those guns are coming from the United States of America. They aren’t coming from Mexico. They are not coming from Mexico. You are reiterating the plank of a mass shooter, sir. Sir, you are perpetuating violence.”
After he was removed from the hearing, the committee got back to the bill, which would restore an “assault weapon ban” similar to the ban the U.S. had from 1994 to 2004.
Mr. Hogg later tweeted a video of his outburst at the hearing and commented above the clip: “The guns in Parkland, Buffalo, El Paso, didn’t come from Mexico,” He went on to say, “They came from the US, and the shooters were inspired by racist, anti-black, anti-immigrant manifestos that rhyme with GOP talking points.”
Mr. Hogg, became a well-known gun control advocate after he survived a deadly mass shooting in Parkland, Florida as a student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. A former student, Nikolas Cruz, fatally shot 17 victims and wounded 17 others.
Cruz last year pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. A jury is presently deciding whether he will spend his life in prison or receive the death penalty.
Correction: A previous version of this story included a misspelling of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.