Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering testified before members of Congress Wednesday in support of an assault weapons ban as she described the “horrific mass shooting” at the town’s Fourth of July parade that left seven people dead and at least 48 others shot and injured.
“Less than a minute is all it took for a person with an assault weapon to shoot 83 rounds into a crowd, forever changing so many lives. And the most disturbing part? This is the norm in our country,” Rotering said. “Highland Park had the uniquely American experience of a Fourth of July parade turn into what has now become a uniquely American experience of a mass shooting. How do we call this freedom?”
She said mayors across the country don’t fear “if” a mass shooting will hit their hometowns, but “when.”
Wearing an orange shirt, and an orange ribbon pinned to the lapel of her jacket, Rotering shared her firsthand account of the shooting with members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, a crowd of activists and Highland Park residents seated behind her. The color has been commonly used to raise gun violence awareness after Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in 2013.
“It was a perfect summer day,” she said. “The excitement of 3,000 parade-goers was palpable, especially since this was our first parade in two years, post-pandemic. Festive floats, a sea of children and adults in red, white and blue waving American flags. At 10 a.m., my council and I kicked off our parade. Music and cheering were all we could hear as we headed down the street.”
Shortly after, the marching band stopped playing music. But she thought she could still hear a drum cadence. Only then did she realize someone was firing dozens of rounds into the crowd.
“We screamed, ‘Run! Shooter!’ Adults stared back, not comprehending. But the kids knew immediately: this wasn’t a drill,” she said. “Grandparents were running for cover, toddlers were being placed in dumpsters for safety and the bodies of those who were hit were scattered on the ground.”
Rotering told the story of Cassie Goldstein running for her life alongside her mother, Katie, who was shot and killed that day. She spoke of trying to find wandering toddler Aiden McCarthy’s parents, who were killed during the parade too.
The hearing was chaired by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who wore an orange tie and had a piece of cloth that read “HP Strong” in bold orange letters in front of him on the desk.
“How did we get to this point?” Durbin asked. “Why are these killing machines flying off the shelves after they were banned for a decade until 2004?”
Durbin praised the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed in June, what he called “the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades.” But, he added, “We’ve got to do more.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois was also present at the hearing and addressed the committee.
“We all swore an oath to defend the Constitution, which was established to ensure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and for future generations,” Duckworth said. “Let me tell you, allowing corporations to flood our communities with weapons of war has made a mockery of that sacred preamble.”
Other speakers in favor of stricter gun control laws included committee members Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and experts such as senior political scientist from the RAND Corp. and Marine veteran Kyleanne Hunter.
“We owe it to the victims of gun violence, their families and the American people to ensure that gun violence prevention policy is based on objective facts,” Hunter said. “Actionable solutions only come when we are willing to take a clear-eyed look at the state of the science, and that includes looking at the role of assault weapons, or commonly called ‘modern sporting rifles,’ in mass shootings.”
Ranking member U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa spoke against a federal ban on assault weapons and gun control, as did Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both of Texas. Philip Smith, founder and president of the National African American Gun Association, also spoke against the ban.
“One of the things I worry about is, the focus on the firearm that we’ve heard so far deflects our attention from other places where I think we can make a substantial difference,” Cornyn said. He referred to criminality, drug overdoses and gang violence.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota thanked Rotering for her leadership, and asked about the long-term effects of the shooting that she expects to see on her community as it grieves.
“We are still a community trying to figure out the next step to healing,” Rotering said. She referenced observing a moment of silence a week after the shooting, as well as holding a vigil with SWAT teams and rooftop snipers present so the crowd would feel safe. “There is a lot of physical and emotional pain that we will all be carrying with us, but for a lot of folks, their lives will never be the same.”
“It’s still a new journey for all of us, it will be a long journey, but right now, we need to get these weapons out of civilian hands,” she said about assault-style weapons, evoking a round of applause from some present, including Klobuchar.
Booker said that, as former mayor of Newark, he knows that it’s “just a matter of time” before another shooting occurs in another mayor’s city.
“Today, we’re talking about Highland Park. Tomorrow, we could be talking about another town, another mosque, another grocery store, another church, another school,” he said.
Rotering echoed that sentiment. “We all know it’s not ‘if’ but ‘when,’” she said.
Rotering’s 14-page testimony document — which included calls to strengthen red-flag laws and national background checks, to ban assault weapons and large-capacity magazines and to reduce immunity for gun dealers — ended with the exhortation: “Today is the day to start saving lives.”
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