The U.S. has seen more than 240 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Of these shootings reported, 33 have taken place since the horrific attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two adults. This weekend alone, at least seven mass shootings resulted in 11 deaths and injuries to at least 54 others.
This trend in mass shootings across the country has brought to light the debate on gun control and how the U.S. will handle gun violence. As the Department of Justice investigates a shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket as a hate crime, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to examine violent extremist threats, including the Buffalo incident that killed at least 10 people.
The hearing titled "Examining the 'Metastasizing' Domestic Terrorism Threat After the Buffalo Attack" is currently in session. According to a committee release, it will examine "the continued threat posed by violent white supremacists and other extremists, including those who have embraced the so-called 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory, as well as the federal government's response to this threat.”
The hearing began with opening remarks by Chair Dick Durbin, who called the Buffalo mass shooting "one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in recent memory.” He also read the victims' names.
"Every one of these victims left behind loved ones who are grieving that loss—and several of those loved ones are in the room with us today. I think there are no words that fill the empty chairs at your dinner table or the empty spaces in your heart," Durbin said. "But your willingness to sit in this room to honor the memory of those lost is a lesson in courage and love."
He added: "Please know that you are not alone. We offer our deepest condolences, and most importantly, our commitment to do something."
To end his opening statement, Durbin played a video clip of conservative news hosts, including those from Fox, to depict "the role of the media and the role that they played in dragging hateful rhetoric into mainstream America, and sadly, how it's inspiring acts of racist violence."
"More than 400 episodes of Tucker Carlson's show have amplified the so-called great replacement conspiracy theory, the guiding principle of modern white supremacist movement," Durbin said. "As lawmakers, we must speak in one voice and repeat repudiating this incendiary rhetoric, along with any individual or extremist group that resorts to violence."
The son of the oldest victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting also appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He called on lawmakers to "yield your positions" if they're unwilling to meet "the urgency of the moment.”
”You expect us to continue to just forgive and forget over and over again. And what are you doing?" Garnell Whitfield Jr., the oldest son of Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo shooting, asked the Senate panel. "You're elected to protect us, to protect our way of life."
He continued: ”I ask every one of you to imagine the faces of your mothers as you look at mine, and ask yourself, 'Is there nothing that we can do?’ Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism that inspires? Because if there is nothing, then respectfully, Senators, you should yield your positions of authority and influence the others that are willing to lead on this issue. The urgency of the moment demands, no less."
According to ABC News, other witnesses on the panel include Michael German, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent and fellow at the Brennan Center For Justice; Robert Pape, professor and director of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats at The University of Chicago; Justin Herdman, a former U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, and legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University Law School.
On Tuesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security also warned of a "heightened" threat environment for "domestic violent extremists” in a bulletin.
"Individuals in online forums that routinely promulgate domestic violent extremist and conspiracy theory-related content have praised the May 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and encouraged copycat attacks.” This latest National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin is the sixth bulletin of this nature the department has posted since Biden took office.
Watch the hearing below
