The committee of the judiciary will come to order. Without objection the chair is authorized declare recesses at any time. We welcome everyone to this mornings hearing on protecting america from assault weapons. I will now recognize myself with an Opening Statement. Assault weapons have been repeatedly used of weapons of deadly violence on our citizens. In the last two years, las vegas, parkland, pittsburgh, midland and odessa have seen Mass Shootings at the hands of an gunman with assault weapons. Last month we added el paso and dayton to the list of communities to experience violence. Todays hearing is about whether america will tolerate weapons of war in our streets and neighborhood. Civilian assault weapons are just semi automatic versions of military weapons. They have no purpose but to kill as many as possible as quickly as possible. By allowing killers to rapidly fire targets without stopping to reload, assault weapons are designed for bloodshed. State laws have proven too easy to evade. This is one reason i support a national ban on assault weapons. For example, despite californias ban on assault weapons, a man was able to drive across the border into nevada to buy an assault weapon. A 75 round high capacity magazine plus five 40 round m magazines and used this to kill three people and wound 17 others in a matter of minutes. Gunmen intent on killing whether the target is one person or many can hop over state lines and return to kill others. We must examine this problem. A federal assault weapon ban that e pirxpired in 2004 was a watershed moment. Mass shooting fatalities were 70 less likely to occur compared to the periods before and after the ban. The study found the assault weapons ban was associated with a 25 drop in gun massacres and a 40 drop in fatalities. The ban however was not without its shortcomings. During the ban, the gun industry as usual putting profits over morality, they modified assault weapons that were technically legal. One ak47 clone, in spite of assault weapons ban im sorry in spite of Assault Rifle bans, bans of high capacity magazines, the ranting of the antigun media and the rifles of political correctness, the kalishnakov has flourished. Today theres probably more models and accessories to choose from than ever before. Closed quote. Boasting about how to evade the law. A law intended to protect human lives. As we consider how best to address the problem of assault weapons, we must examine the loopholes in the 1994 law that weaken its effectness. Although tassault weapons preset a far broader problems. The weapons pose a daily threat to our communities. Whether or not their particular use cause mass casualties or make national news. They hold a particular appeal to criminals who can wield terror without them even without causing loss of life on a wide scale. For too long, the response in congress to the daily toll of gun violence in our streets and our schools and places of worship has been moments of silence. Thats changed. Earlier this year, this committee reported and passed legislation to expand and improve our background checks system. This committee recently approved bills to establish systems for extreme Risk Protection orders, ban large capacity magazines and prohibit individuals convicted of hate crime misdemeanor from possessing firearmsi. Todays hearing continues the important task of addressing our Shameful National problem of gun violence. Today, well discuss assault weapons and examine options for dealing with these particularly dangerous weapons of war. Tomorrow, our subcommittee on crime terrorism and Homeland Security will conduct a hearing concerning Community Responses to gun violence in our cities. You must take a comprehensive approach to solving the National Crisis of gun violence. An issue that for too long has been ignored by national leaders. We know the American People want us to examine the facts and to find solutions. This hearing is an important step towards that goal. I would like to recognize the survivors and advocates here today, including those from newton, parkland, march for our lives and moms demand action. Thank you for your tireless advocacy, you inspire us all. I thank our witnesses for appearing today and i look forward to their testimony. I understand that the Ranking Member is on his way. Well proceed to witness testimony at this time and well recognize the Ranking Member for his Opening Statement when he arrives. Without objection, all other Opening Statements will be included in the record. I will now introduce todays witnesses. T nan whaley is mayor of dayton, ohio. Mayor whaley has been a leading advocate for gun safety legislation. Before joining city government, mayor whaley served on the montgomery board of elections and as a deputy to the Montgomery County auditor. She received our b. A. From the university of dayton. Dr. Tovar is a surgeon at el paso. After the mass shooting at a walmart in el paso, the doctor treated victims of the shooting. He received his m. D. From the university of texas school of medicine at san antonio. Dr. Bractney is the chief of police in charlottesville, virginia. She was the first africanamerican woman to oversee a special operations division. She received her b. A. And m. A. From ca Carnegie Mellon univers kristin rand is the legislative director for the Violence Policy Center. Before joining the center in 1994, she served as the counsel for consumers union. She received her b. A. From university of southern california. Amy swearer is a senior legal policy analyst in the center for judicial studies at the heritage foundation. She held position with the lancaster nebraska public defenders office. She received or bachelor of science and her jd from the university of nebraska. Dana mueller is the founder of the Grass Roots Initiative to bring one woman from every state to washington, d. C. To meet with lawmakers. Previously she served for 22 years in the tulsa police department. She received a bachelor of science in criminal justice and psychology from the university of central missouri. David chip is a senior policy advisor and is a member of the Firearms Committee of the International Association of chiefs of police. Prior to assuming his current position, he served for 25 years as a special agent for the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. He received his b. A. From American University and his masters in management from Johns Hopkins university. We welcome all our distinguished witnesses and we thank them for participating in todays hearing. If youd please rise ill begin by swearing you in. Raise your right hand. What happened . Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give is true and correct to the best ofbest of your knowledge, information and belief, so help you god. Let the record show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Please note each of your written statements will be entered into the record in its entirety y. Ask you summarize your testimony in five minutes. To help you stay within that time, there is a timing light on your table. When the light switches from green to yellow you have one minute to conclude your testimony. When the light turns red, your five minutes have expired. Mayor whaley, you may begin. Thank you chairman nadler. On august 4th at 1 00 a. M. , the district was buzzlistling with Diverse Group of friends and neighbors. People hopped between bars and restaurants as last call approached. Others waited in line at a popular taco truck for a late night snack. That all changed in an instance. A man armed with an ar15 pistol variant walked down an alley between two bars and began spraying high velocity rounds into the crowd. He then turned down a crowded street as people tried to run for safety. Friends pulled each other into doorways to try to escape bullets. One man threw his girlfriend to the ground and covered her body with his own. People literally ran out of their shoes. Less than a minute later, nine people were dead, and 17 others had been shot. Dozens more were injured in the commotion. 32 seconds. In just 32 seconds, 26 people had been shot, nine families had lost loved ones, and dozens more will never be the same. The entire incident was over in half as much time as ive been speaking to you so far today. And those 32 seconds the shooters weapon did exactly what it was designed to do. Kill or injure as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. It was a weapon designed to inflict maximum damage to human beings. It left a trail of destruction not on some foreign battlefield, but down a Historic Brick street in dayton, ohio. I visited the crime scene the morning after the shooting. The thing i remember most clearly is the smell of bleach. A street sweeper was being used to try to clean the road and men in hazmat suits were scrubbing the sidewalks. The meat still sat on the grill of the taco truck. Bullets looked like they had been scattered without thought. I was in a place that was both completely familiar and completely foreign. The shooting occurred three months ago but our sidewalks are still stained after numerous power washes. Many buildings and street signs still have bullet holes in them. These are just the physical scars left by the shooting. Young people who were in the district that night talk about their new fear of crowds. Bartenders are consumed with anxiety at the sound of sirens. Neighbor dread the sound of fireworks after being awakened by gunfire. Our whole city is hurting. All because a young man with a history of violent ideas could get his hands on a weapon capable of such destruction. And, yet, we are lucky. Just 32 seconds after the shooting began, Dayton Police neutralized the gunman. He was killed as he attempted to enter a bar with hundreds of people were hiding. If he shot 26 people on the street in 32 seconds, what could he have done in that bar . We are so lucky that seven Dayton Police officers were less than a block away when the shooting began. Were so lucky that these officers relied on their training and their courage and ran directly into the gunfire. I have thought a lot about the bravery of the Dayton Police and the impossible situation that confronted them. Why do we ask our First Responders to face down weapons that can do so much damage in so little time . Our city has honored these heroes. The white house has honored these heroes. But if were serious about honoring and thanking our brave First Responders, the best thing we can do is make sure they are never put in this situation again. Police should not have to confront a weapon that can kill nine people in 32 seconds. No one should. The evening after the shooting, thousands of people gathered for a vigil on the same street where nine of their neighbors had died only hours earlier. When the governor took the stage, hundreds of people shouted in frustration, do something. Do something. The massacre that happened in dayton and has happened in too many communities across this country demands a response. We must insure that no american neither a young person on a casual night out nor a Police Officer on patrol has to face down weapons capable of so much destruction. Im here today on behalf of the citizens of dayton and mayors across the country to ask you to keep weapons like this off our streets. Im here to ask you to do something. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Dr. Tovar . Chairman nadler, vice chair, Ranking Member collins and distinguished members of the house Judiciary Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you today and participate in this hearing. Ive been a trauma surgeon and the trauma medical director at the Medical Center at el paso. On saturday morning august 3rd, i just finished a typical 30 hour shift at the hospital with the usual gallbladder surgery. I picked up mcdonalds on the way home looking forward to eating and getting sleep until sunday morning when i had to do it all over again. After i got home at 10 55 a. M. , i received a text message from my chairman of surgery who was out of town. Active shooter, walmart, unknown number of victims. Didnt think much of it. An active shooter alert a month earlier and the s. W. A. T. Team only brought in one person at a time. I texted two minutes later was sent to all surgeons in our group. If anybody is in el paso, go to the hospital. Theres an active shooter and well get at least four or five victims. By the time the text was sent, i would learn later the shooting was over in just about 20 minutes. And more than 20 people were killed, more than 20 were injured and countless lives would be changed. I ran red lights and sped to the hospital. I knew that most of these patients would require immediate surgery and i was trying to coordinate who would be there to help operate. By the time i arrived, each of our six trauma bays had patients, each needed surgery. A doctor was already in the operating room with one of them. The one that drew my attention was a patient with cpr in progress. She has been talking a few minutes before and now from a shoulder wound she was lifeless. My resident and i quickly and methodically cut open her chest to begin manual cardiac compressions. Three liters of blood immediately spilt to the floor. After working for several minutes, i knew our efforts were futile and i had to pronounce the time of death. Ten minutes after i arrived to the hospital. The look of disappointment in my residents eyes ate at me. We had more to do. Im not a military surgeon. But what i saw looked like a war zone. Gunshot wounds in the legs led to exit wounds greater a grapefute. Ive never seen anything like this before. How could a firearm create this type of destruction. The next woman had her pelvis shattered, multiple holes in her intestine were too extensive to be repaired. In damage controlled surgery, decisions have to be made to remove parts of the intestines when there are more pressing issues to be addressed. In this case, it was clear none of this intestine could be salvaged. We packed with temporary dressing, when she was stabilized and could return to surgery in a day or two to assess for any missed injuries. I treated countless patients with gunshot wounds from small firearms. In those cases, sometimes its difficult to find the holes because of how small they are and the clean cut appearance that looks like a pencil made them. Here, it was not so. We had patients coming in in the span of 34 minutes, the other main hospital in town received 11 patients. Seven of our patients went straight to the o. R. For surgery in a single hour. Most had to return to the operating room several more times. And their journey is not done. In the next few months, temporary colostomies, multiple orthopedic procedures will have to be performed and reversed and closed. In the aftermath, 22 people lost their lives that day. We did save 13 out of the 14 patients that arrived to us. But that first patient haunts me every night. I wish i could have done more. I blame myself for her death. I saw her autopsy recently to try to get some closure. She was protecting her child and so she was actually shot in the back and through her shoulder. She had a hole the size of a baseball at the top of her lung. Her vessels were essentially nonexistent. If this injury had been caused by a smaller firearm she might have had a chance of survival. But there was nothing i could do to fix that type of devastating injury. I hope she died knowing she protected her child from the same fate. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Chief . Committee chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the u. S. House of representatives, committee on the judiciary. I bring you greetings on behalf of the executive board and members of the National Organization of black Law Enforcement executives, noble. As you know my name is dr. Brackney. Im the chief of police in charlottesville, virginia and all that brings with it. Its an honor for noble to provide written testimony on the topic of protecting america from assault weapons. No one is concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States and specifically the correlation between violence and the proliferation of assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. Its our organizations opinion that violence, particularly gun violence is a Public Health issue. And as with all Public Health issues, it demands a comprehensive nonjudgmental pragmatic evidence based approach to saving lives and reducing injury. Noble along with other organizations such as the national Law Enforcement partnership to prevent gun violence of which were a member, is committed to addressing the pervasive nature of gun violence and its impact on communities across maent. Specifically, firearm related injuries and deaths to include homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings involving assault weapons is unacceptable. It depends immediate action. To be clear, nobody defines assault weapons as semi automatic guns with a high capacity ammunition magazine designed for military use. We advocate for limiting high capacity ammunition magazines to ten rounds and the regulation of new semi automatic assault weapons. In 2016, assault weapons accounted for one in four Police Officers killed in the line of duty through gun violence. Noble supported the Public Safety firearms use protection act or the federal assault weapons ban of 1994. And the federal assault weapons ban reauthorization act of 2004. We currently support hr 8, which is a bipartis