“No citizen needs an AR-15,” said Zeneta Everhart, whose son, Zaire Goodman, was critically wounded during the mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket last month
The mother of a 21-year-old man who was shot in the neck and back during a racially motivated mass shooting at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last month offered a poignant message to lawmakers Wednesday: “Your thoughts and prayers are not enough.”
Zeneta Everhart is the mother of Zaire Goodman, who survived a bullet through his neck and back while collecting shopping carts as an employee at the supermarket. Everhart said that Goodman is “pure joy” and “everything that’s good in this world.”
On Wednesday, she testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, in a hearing to examine the gun violence epidemic in the United States.
Explaining to lawmakers that “there are three reasons” why the mass shooting at Tops occurred, Everhart said one is the plain and simple fact that America’s history is rooted in hatred, violence and slavery.
“America is inherently violent,” she said, adding: “Let me say that again for the people in the back: My ancestors … were stripped of their heritage and culture … sold and raped and lynched.”
Questioning why African American history is not regularly taught as part of American history, Everhart said a change in curriculum is needed, offering a subtle reference to recent controversy surrounding the hot-button issue of critical race theory, which members of the GOP argue will teach white students that they are inferior to their minority peers.
“Our differences should make us curious, not angry,” Everhart said.
She also said that America’s history of violence has persisted even today, noting, “The 18-year-old terrorist who stormed into my community armed with an AR-15, killing 10 people and injuring 3 others, received a shotgun from his parents for his 16th birthday.”
“For Zaire’s 16th birthday, I bought him a few video games, some headphones, a pizza and a cake. We are not the same,” she said.
She then went on to discuss gun violence specifically, saying, “Lawmakers who [are] not passing stricter gun laws should be voted out.”
“Let me paint a picture for you. My son, Zaire, has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back and another on his left leg, caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15,” she said.
She continued: “As I clean his wounds I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back … Now I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children.”
Speaking directly to lawmakers, Everhart said that “Commonsense gun laws are not about your personal beliefs,” adding that she, as an American, does “not feel protected.”
“No citizen needs an AR-15,” she said, noting that it took the shooter at Tops “just 10 minutes to shoot and kill 10 people and injure three others.”
“If hearing from me … does not move you to act on gun laws,” Everhart said, “I invite you to my home to help me clean Zaire’s wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son.”
Others scheduled to speak at the Wednesday hearing are 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, a student at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school who covered herself in her dead classmate’s blood in an effort to avoid being shot during the recent rampage there, and the parents of a 10-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Uvalde.
