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Gun violence roundtable airs concern from parents, community members in Coral Gables

Miami Herald - 6/1/2022

Former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell hosted a roundtable discussion Wednesday in Coral Gables as a part of Giffords organization initiative with a small group of concerned parents and community members.

Five people from the community shared their thoughts and emotional testimonies for about 45 minutes on how gun violence had affected their lives as they sat around Powell in an intimate setting at Books and Books. The group discussed gun reform, including banning AR-15-style-rifles, education on gun violence and universal background checks.

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in 2011 and continues to be affected by her injuries. The congresswoman stepped down in 2012 and started the Giffords gun violence prevention organization in 2013. Powell, who served in the House of Representatives from 2019-2021, serves as Gifford’s senior adviser and moderated the event.

Powell said the issue of gun violence prevention is very personal to her. She’s raising her kids in Miami, and they’ve all been through active-shooter drills, she said.

“I want Floridians to understand that this shouldn’t be political, that it’s a matter of safety,” Powell said. “It’s a matter of bringing people together to the table to have these discussions so that we can actually ask our elected officials, regardless of party, to pass the laws that will protect our children.”

One of the first areas of discussion at the roundtable was the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, that left 19 children and two teachers dead on May 24. Three of the attendees have children, and Lisa Lopez, a personal injury attorney, said her 3-year-old has already learned active-shooter drills. The group shared frustration toward the current gun laws that allow anyone older than 18 to have an AR-15-style-rifle.

Lopez said there’s no reason anyone should be handling an AR-15, with the exception of the military with countless hours of training.

“That’s a weapon of war,” Lopez said to the group. “Our cops are not walking around with AR15s, they’re just not. So why are we putting this in the hands of an 18-year-old?”

Lopez said she doesn’t understand how anyone can agree with a society without permits, licenses and background checks on guns. Anyone who believes otherwise shouldn’t be in office, she said.

“If Governor DeSantis is going to put the financial means, or the NRA above the safety of our children, which is our highest commodity and the most important thing on this planet, then he should not be in office,” Lopez said to the group.

The group brought up politicians such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rick Scott and DeSantis, who have received thousands of dollars from the National Rifle Association, and in turn, will not pass gun reform laws, they said. Scott, who was then governor, signed the legislation that passed after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018. It was the most significant gun-reform legislation in Florida in a generation.

Education on gun reform and misinformation were discussed. Each member chimed in as they all agreed that gun reform isn’t about banning all guns, and wished there was more communication on both sides of the issue. One of the attendees said they wished Rubio was sitting at the table to hear them speak about their concerns and frustrations with lawmakers who continue to ignore gun violence.

Powell said it’s shameful that DeSantis has not said anything about the Uvalde shooting.

“We live in a state where we have a high rate of Latinos living in Florida, we know that Latinos are twice as likely to be affected by gun violence than non-Latino, white communities, and yet we have not heard one word from Ron DeSantis,” Powell said. Uvalde is not far from the Mexican border and has a heavily Hispanic population.

DeSantis has said that if the Legislature passes an open-carry law, he’ll sign it, but Powell said she believes that after Uvalde, Floridians will not allow a law like that to be passed.

Anabella Perelló, the mother of a sixth-grader, said society needs to face hard truths. Trauma surgeons, who see shooting victims, need to be heard more often, she said.

“We need to look and hear what those weapons do to bodies,” Perelló said. “Just a number, 19, 10, 15 casualties, is not something that is going to allow us to know what it’s like. I can’t even imagine a parent having to go recognize their child. But these are the things that we need to be talking about.”

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