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A grieving Uvalde mother fights to change gun laws · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, May 24th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, the parents of school shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas reflect on a year of activism.
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  Today marks one year since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Seventeen others were injured. It took law enforcement more than an hour to storm the fourth-grade classroom and confront the shooter and his AR-15.
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  In the months since, families have been searching for answers and questioning the slow response from law enforcement on that day. The Justice Department is investigating. A medical study is underway to see whether faster action might've saved lives. There's still new information coming out after all this time. Recently, "CNN" showed some parents of survivors previously unseen footage of their children escaping. One father, Miguel Cerrillo, explained why he chose to watch.
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  [START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Miguel Cerrillo: Me, I just wanna see the big picture of it. Exactly what she went through, where she was at, how they suffered, and why they suffered so long.
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  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Many of the victims' loved ones channeled their grief into activism, fighting for stricter gun laws at the state and national levels. Two weeks ago, they had a partial victory. Republicans in the Texas House advanced a bill out of committee that would raise the buying age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21. But with the legislative session ending next week, it's unlikely to become law yet.
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  Last month, Javier Cazares, whose daughter died at Robb Elementary, testified in favor of this legislation.
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  [START THE TEXAS TRIBUNE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Javier Cazares: [CRYING, SNIFFLING THROUGHOUT] She was taken by being brutally murdered at nine years old, along with her 18 classmates and two teachers, by an 18-year-old gunman. We're here to support H.B. 2744 and raising the age from 18 to 21 to purchase an assault rifle. We believe, I believe, and I believe many Texans, that this will have some type of effect in stopping future mass shootings.
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  [END THE TEXAS TRIBUNE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  "Texas Monthly" recently profiled Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of 10-year-old Lexi, one of the children who was killed. It is a deeply moving profile that looks at how her life has changed and how she holds on to the memory of her daughter. It's also about her new role as an advocate for gun safety laws, speaking at rallies, testifying to Congress and running a new nonprofit group. I recently spoke with Kimberly, and I began by asking if she could put the last year into words.
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  Kimberly Mata-Rubio: I think a lot of people have asked us to describe a year, what that's been like for us, but it doesn't really feel like a year. I feel like very much stuck on May 24th, 2022. I don't think we'll ever move past that. It's been… It's been a nightmare. I think every day, we wake up, and we just hope this was all just a really bad dream, and then we have to get through the day.
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  Basu: Yeah, I hear that. And I was really moved by the "Texas Monthly" piece that you allowed people to really see what your daily routines are like, what things are like at home for you and your husband and your whole family. And in that article, you talk about this running routine that you have and about the fact that on your running route, you come across a mural every day, this huge mural in town, and your daughter Lexi is part of that mural. What does it mean to you to see her in that way?
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  Mata-Rubio: It's really special to me to see her memorialized like that. I run up, and I just see she's larger than life. Her huge smile. It's perfect. And on a good day, I'll sit with her and talk with her, and it makes me feel better, and there's some comfort there. On a bad day, I just sit there, and I sob. It's heart-wrenching. How is my daughter not here? How is this my only way to see her?
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  Basu: What do you like to tell people about Lexi?
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  Mata-Rubio: It's a hard question because I want so much for them to know her, for her to still be here and to tell her own story. And how do I describe 10 years with my daughter in a couple of sentences? How do I describe who she is? But she's… [SIGHS] She's a powerful little girl. She is a sweetheart. She's intelligent. She's competitive, driven, athletic. She gets that from her dad. [LAUGHS] She's gonna change the world.
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  Basu: I know that you've put your energy into so many different efforts over the past year. Where do you feel like your energy has been best spent?
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  Mata-Rubio: I think our main focus has been a complete ban on assault weapons at the federal level. And the reason we put our focus there is we are not naive. We understand how Texas politics work and how difficult it would be to see any sort of progress at the state level. But we thought, well, let's just try this and save some lives while we wait for the federal government to step in. That's really been how we've spent a lot of our time. It also helps with our grief, staying busy.
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  Mata-Rubio: I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but just avoiding this reality. I've really just thrown myself into being an advocate. I have some good meetings and some bad meetings, both in D.C. and at the Texas Capitol. The good meetings, they understand, they hear us out. And whether they're on our side or not, I've spoken with Republicans who just cry when they hear our story. They ask to pray over us. And then, at least two Republicans at the Texas level voted with us on House Bill 2744, which was an attempt to raise the age to purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21. So, we saw progress. But in other meetings, they just say no. They don't believe that gun reform is a solution to mass shootings. They believe it's mental health or an increase in school security. Those are all reactive approaches instead of just being proactive and making laws stricter for guns.
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  Basu: What do you want people to understand about the aftermath, the effects of a school shooting on a family and on a whole community?
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  Mata-Rubio: That it's more than just the few weeks after that is covered by media. It's every day. It's for the rest of our lives. We are broken. And there's no other way for me to describe it. All of us are completely different people, and we're having to navigate this new life that none of us wanna be a part of. There is no life without her. For our community, just the roller coaster of emotions, the waves of sympathy that came in initially, to resentment, division later on. I think what I want Americans to understand is this very well could be them. This is all of our fight, and I really hope more people understand that and join.
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  Kimberly helped organize a candlelight vigil this evening honoring all the victims of the shooting. We'll have more coverage of Uvalde through the day on the Apple News app, including more of Kimberly's story. You can listen to the entire "Texas Monthly" profile of her as a narrated article.
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  Before we let you go, let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news today.
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  The U.S. territory of Guam is feeling the impact of Typhoon Mawar. President Biden approved an emergency declaration for the Pacific island. Many people evacuated as the storm got closer. "CNN" meteorologist Derek Van Dam reported on how powerful it is.
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  Derek Van Dam: It's hard to overstate how dangerous the storm actually is because it's coming to Guam with a triple threat. Not only is it the winds, but it's also the storm surge and the localized flash flooding and landslides that will be a problem.
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  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  In political news, South Carolina's legislature has passed a bill to ban most abortions after six weeks. The governor says he'll sign it as soon as possible. Abortion rights advocates promise a quick legal challenge once that happens.
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  Donald Trump now faces another trial in March of next year, right in the heat of the presidential primary race. A New York state judge just set the timing for the trial on charges that Trump falsified business records related to hush money payments to women claiming they had affairs with him. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
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  And he'll officially have a major new rival in the GOP primary later today. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his campaign today on Twitter in conversation with CEO Elon Musk. Despite participating in a campaign announcement, Musk says he's not yet planning to endorse a candidate.
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  If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, stick around for more on a key player in the DeSantis campaign: his wife, Casey DeSantis. "POLITICO" has an in-depth story on the influential role she plays. As one political insider puts it, Casey DeSantis is "both his biggest asset and his biggest liability." That's cued up to play for you next. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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