| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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POLITICO Illustration/Courtesy of Patricia Oliver | What up, Recast fam! The Jan. 6 panel debuts in prime time with testimony from members of Donald Trump's inner circle taking center stage. And tens of thousands of young gun violence prevention activists and survivors are expected to descend on Washington and other cities nationwide to push for federal gun reforms. The House this week approved its most sweeping series of gun reforms in years, passing measures prohibiting the sale of a semiautomatic weapon to anyone younger than 21 and banning high-capacity magazines. A day later, it passed another bill allowing the confiscation of firearms from people who are considered a risk to themselves or others. The bill also incentivizes states to enact their own so-called red flag laws. The votes took place after lawmakers heard gripping testimony from survivors and loved ones of victims of recent gun violence in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y. Witnesses included an 11-year-old girl who recounted smearing herself with her friend's blood and playing dead during last month's attack at Robb Elementary School. Then there was the parent, who, through tears, talked about her final exchange with her daughter who was killed in the Uvalde massacre. Patricia Oliver knows that pain all too well. She lost her son, Joaquin, in the 2018 Valentine's Day shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school where an expelled student killed 17 of his fellow classmates. "Guac," as Oliver's son was known to his friends, was 17. In the wake of his murder, Oliver and her husband, Manuel, started Change the Ref, a gun safety organization that uses art to raise awareness of the real-life toll gun violence has on families and communities. On Wednesday, Oliver was a guest of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who invited her to the U.S. Capitol to witness the passage of the Protecting Our Kids Act. The legislation includes a provision called Ethan's Law, which would establish federal requirements for safely storing firearms. The legislation is named after Ethan Song, a Connecticut teenager who was accidentally killed while handling an unsecured gun. The Venezuelan-born Oliver's excitement about the gun legislation is tempered. While she would like lawmakers to go further, including a ban on assault weapons – such as the one used in her son's murder – Oliver knows that's not possible. The measures the House passed are unlikely to be taken up in the Senate. In the upper chamber, a small group of bipartisan negotiators is working on a framework that would include some modest changes to the background check system, such as including some juvenile records. We talk about witnessing the passage of the gun legislation, why she doesn't regret having moved from Venezuela to the U.S. despite her family's tragedy — and why she believes red flag laws should apply to her, too. ◆◆◆ This interview has been edited for length and clarity. THE RECAST: You were at the Capitol when the House passed the Protecting Our Kids Act. What was that experience like? OLIVER: Well, I was lucky to be there with the people's advocate. We were at Rep. Rosa DeLauro's office. We were invited to wait for the results there. We have been advocating for a while for Ethan's Law. Kristin Song, [Ethan's] mom, has been working very hard, his dad, Mike Song, too. We are now in the midway of this passing, but it is something that is historical. It's never happened before in the chamber, so that's amazing.
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| Every week, we sit down with diverse and influential characters who are shaking up politics. Who should we profile next? Let us know. Email us at therecast@politico.com.
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THE RECAST: So you were a guest of the Connecticut congresswoman. Not a representative from Florida?
OLIVER: Oh yeah, she's awesome. She's unique. She's a warrior. She was as excited as we were. When you're going through this and you see something happen, finally, that you know is gonna be remarkable, you feel a little bit of hope in the middle of this darkness that there's a little light over there. So that was a feeling when we were there. There were other survivors and my friends from Santa Fe [the high school in Texas, where eight students and two teachers were killed three months after Parkland in 2018.] One of them lost their daughter and the other one, her daughter was a survivor, but they are friends. The PTSD is still there, they are suffering like we [are], just in a different way.
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Candles are lit at a prayer vigil to remember the victims from the Santa Fe High School shooting at Walter Hall Park in May 2018 in Texas. | Scott Olson/Getty Images | THE RECAST: How do you keep going with all this? I can sympathize with how frustrating it is when you're pushing and pushing for gun laws to change on the federal level. And it seems the only time lawmakers come to the table is after a heinous act of gun violence, then in the end, nothing really comes of it. OLIVER: Definitely. It seems like it is a cycle, because we're talking about Sandy Hook that happened 10 years ago and then it happened in Texas, again recently, in an elementary school. Working on this path is very difficult. Me and my husband have been on this road for 4½ years already.
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| We work really hard on social issues. We make people understand that to take action on gun reform we all have to be together. We need everybody to vote, everybody raise their voices. So that's our job at Change the Ref. There are other organizations – tons of them – they dedicate most of their time to pass bills, to lobby. We don't do that much. I made an exception with Ethan's Law because I thought it was very simple. THE RECAST: Some of the other provisions the House passed include raising the age from 18 to 21 to purchase a semiautomatic weapon. That does not look like it will be part of the Senate package which is considering more narrow changes to gun laws. Do you feel lawmakers should take the bold approach or something more incremental, a suitable compromise? OLIVER: Everything surrounding politics is really a surprise. Often, you believe that you got them, you've convinced them. We're gonna get their support. And you really never know until the day comes. So I want to be positive. I want to keep my optimism til the day comes. Because I don't want to get down and be frustrated. Because if it doesn't happen the way I'm expecting, I need to keep working and fighting and fighting.
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Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded Change The Ref in memory of their son Joaquin — one of the 17 victims during the mass shooting at MSD High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. | Courtesy of Patricia Oliver | THE RECAST: Critics say, "Yes, these measures passed the House, but it's got no chance in the Senate. None." OLIVER: That's what I'm saying. So we made it halfway. So who knows if the other half will be OK with that? We don't know, for example, about what's going to happen with universal background checks. That's very important. We need to know which hands those guns are in because we've been seeing craziness every other hour. You don't know if that person is mentally OK or not. So I can go and purchase a gun. And I am a mom who lost a son four years ago. I don't think I should be able to buy a gun because they don't know if tomorrow [I will snap] and say, "You know what? I'm tired of this situation. Let me finish with my own life."
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| THE RECAST: You feel you should be a red flag? OLIVER: Because I lost my son and I could be crazy. So you cannot let everybody have access to guns. So for that, it is so important to get universal background checks. And not only universal background checks and that's it. No, I'd want a registration that you have to renew, like your car, once a year. So you gotta go and pass a test and see if you are OK. THE RECAST: In an interview, you were asked if you regret your decision to move to the U.S. given the tragic loss of Joaquin. Without hesitation, you said no. Do you still feel that way? OLIVER: We made the decision to move here from Venezuela to be able to give the kids a better life. Joaquin, he was a very happy kid. He enjoyed every single second of his life. He loved to be in school. I remember we were planning to put him in a private school dedicated to sports. And then he said, "Mommy, please can I stay here? Because all my friends are here." You know, how can you know what life is going to put in front of you? I cannot think we did wrong to move here to this country. I cannot cross my mind thinking about other things, because what am I gonna do? I'm gonna suffer. Get more depressed than I am. No, I cannot go backwards.
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Through her organization, Patricia Oliver hopes to give a young generation of survivors and victims a way to lead change. | Courtesy of Patricia Oliver | THE RECAST: OK, let's move forward. There's another March for Our Lives rally this weekend. I know you will be there. What are you hoping will come of this march and how will it be different from the one in 2018? OLIVER: We've been supporting the kids since the very beginning because they started the march after what happened to us. They were teenagers in 2018, we're talking kids 17 and 18 years old then. They didn't know about life, they were caught by surprise. They went from overnight, giving interviews and taking responsibility for a lot of things and being very well-spoken to all the issues that we were going through about gun violence. Now, we are going to see these young adults, 22 and 23 year olds. You're going to be seeing their frustration that we are worse than what we were at that moment four years ago. I think the new generation, the new kids, 18 year olds, they're gonna be connected to them. They are going to be feeling empowered about what they can do. Because when you see young kids and young adults connected to gun violence issues and they begin fighting and lobbying and debating publicly with so many politicians a lot older than them, I think that that's going to be an optimistic reaction.
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People raise their fists during the March for Our Lives rally at Las Vegas City Hall in March 2018. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images | THE RECAST: Do you think it's gonna have an impact on elections? This movement certainly did in 2018. OLIVER: Oh yes! I remember those midterms and we did better in 2020 too. Now they're going to be back again and they're going to be reinforcing the ideas, reinforcing the power that you as a citizen have. They are going to have a lot of people to decide, "OK, yeah, it's my turn to be more proactive." I think it's a good move. I think that we're going to see a huge crowd. So I think it's going to be a huge success. ◆◆◆ OK family, another work grind is almost complete, so we'll leave you with a few quick pops, before serving up some pop culture treats. Watch: Committee uses Trump aides to illustrate Jan. 6 narrative.
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| Arati Prabhakar has emerged as President Biden's top contender to lead the administration's White House science office, POLITICO's Alex Thompson reports. In California, voters in San Francisco ousted progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin on Tuesday. But as POLITICO's Jeremy B. White and Lara Korte report, across the state liberal-leaning DAs had strong showings in this week's primary contests. K-pop global sensation BTS dropped their anthology album Proof today. It's got 35 tracks, including popular hits, unreleased songs, demos and more. Plus, check out the bonus music video for "Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)."
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| "Ms. Marvel" on Disney+ is the South Asian, Muslim representation in the superhero world so many fans have been waiting for.
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| This interview with Michelle Zauner, author of the bestseller "Crying in H Mart," is worth your time. Mike Colter, AKA "Luke Cage," stars in "Charlie Walker," a biopic about a Black trucker who takes on the Man – the white trucking establishment – in '70s era San Francisco. "Queer As Folk," the 2022 reboot, is here and ready for your bingeing pleasure. And finally, we're loving the visuals of Doja Cat's "Vegas," from the soundtrack of the new "Elvis" biopic.
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| TikTok of the Day: Welcome to Pride Month.
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