Fifteen days after a gunman killed 19 of her classmates and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo told lawmakers Wednesday she thinks the shooting will happen again.
In a harrowing account of last month’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas, Miah said she called 911 to ask for the police, smearing her dead classmate’s blood on her face so she could play dead as the gunman remained in the classroom for more than an hour.
“He shot my friend that was next to me, and I thought he was going to come back to the room,” she told the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “So I grabbed the blood, and I put it all over me.”
The fourth grader, testifying through a recorded video at the recommendation of her pediatrician, told lawmakers she wanted “to have security” when she goes to school, where she no longer feels safe.
Cerrillo appeared before the committee alongside other survivors of recent mass shootings and victims’ loved ones in advance of the House voting on a swath of gun control measures.
Those measures include raising the purchasing age for semi-automatic weapons to 21 and banning civilian use of high-capacity magazines, among other proposals.
The bills face stiff opposition in the Senate, where 10 Republicans are needed to overcome a legislative filibuster. A bipartisan group of senators have been meeting to iron out a narrower package that is politically feasible, although it remains unclear whether a deal can be struck.
As Congress debates how to move forward, witnesses emotionally pleaded with the committee for action.
Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter, Lexi, was killed in the Uvalde shooting, demanded an assault weapon ban and an expansion of background checks.
“We understand that for some reason,...