- A gun violence victim's mother told Congress she does not want more gun control laws because she wants to protect herself "from evil."
- "Gun owners are not the enemies, and gun control laws are not the solution," she said.
- She called on Congress to ban gun-free zones and to fund non-partisan firearm education programs.
The mother of a man who died from gun violence told Congress Wednesday that she doesn't want more gun control laws because she wants to protect herself "from evil."
"How about letting me defend myself from evil?" Lucretia Hughes, a conservative gun-rights activist, asked lawmakers at the House Oversight and Reform Committee's hearing on gun violence. "You don't think that I am capable and trustworthy to handle a firearm? You don't think that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to people that look like me?"
"You, who are calling for more gun control, are the same ones that are calling to defund the police," she added. "Who is supposed to protect us? We must prepare to be our own first responders, to protect ourselves and our loved ones."
Hughes, of the DC Project — Women for Gun Rights, was one of several witnesses who spoke to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about gun violence and gun rights in the United States.
A survivor of the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School also spoke, telling lawmakers that she's now afraid another shooting will happen at school. Another witness was the mother of a 20-year-old who was shot in the Buffalo mass shooting at a Tops grocery store last month. She told lawmakers that her son still has bullet fragments in his back.
Hughes told Congress that her 19-year-old son, Emmanuel, was shot "point-blank in the head and was killed while playing dominoes" at a party in April 2016.
"Our gun control lobbyists and politicians claim that their policies will save lives and reduce violence," Hughes said. "Well, those policies did not save my son."
She also criticized current bills that are being discussed in Congress.
"Ten more laws, 2o more laws, 1,000 more won't make what is already illegal more wrong, or stop criminals from committing these crimes," Hughes said.
She then said that gun control laws have failed the Black community, saying she doesn't "need the government to save me."
She finished her testimony by calling on Congress to ban gun-free zones and fund non-partisan firearm education programs.
"Nothing in these bills does anything to make us safer," she said, "And I believe it is our god-given right to protect ourselves against any act of violence."
She concluded: "Gun owners are not the enemies, and gun control laws are not the solution."