Brett Cross by no means imagined he'd be talking out on behalf of a kid gunned down in school. However on Wednesday, he was in Washington, D.C., the place he joined households and survivors from Uvalde, Texas, and different mass shootings, to demand a ban on assault weapons.
Cross' nephew, 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia – who lived with him and who he thought of a son – was among the many 19 kids killed within the Uvalde bloodbath.
"He was energetic, simply all the time full of affection," Cross advised CBS Information. "I simply need what's greatest for my youngsters. One's not ever going to show 11. I've different ones which are emotionally distraught as a result of they misplaced their brother."
The organizers of the "March Fourth" gun management rally mentioned they need Highland Park, Illinois, the place a gunman killed seven folks throughout a 4th of July parade, to be the final group affected by a mass capturing.
However Cross warned that each city must be ready for the same tragedy.
"It is not a matter of if it's going to occur to your youngsters, it is when," Cross mentioned. "As a result of I by no means thought that this could occur to me."
President Biden signed a bipartisan gun management invoice into legislation final month — the primary in three a long time. Cross mentioned it doesn't go far sufficient.
"We have to ban the assault rifles. I am positive all people has already seen video from final night time," Cross mentioned, referring to the surveillance video which confirmed the Uvalde gunman arriving at Robb Elementary Faculty and the cops' delayed response. "The quantity of rounds that occurred as shortly as they did wouldn't have occurred with one other weapon."
"That was my son's last moments," Cross went on. "It is that he walked in so nonchalantly. After which to see the police, who we inform our children to belief and to place their religion in and every little thing, simply stand by and do nothing. The cops there in Uvalde had been cowards. It was a bloodbath. My son did not have an stomach after this. It is not left or proper, Republican, Democratic, crimson or blue. Is my son's life not price that gun?"