CW: This article references/discusses gun violence. Please refer to the end of the article for on- and off-campus resources. 

U.S. Capitol Police arrested the father of one of the victims of the 2018 Parkland, Fla. shooting for interrupting a congressional hearing on gun regulations on March 23. 

Manuel Oliver’s 17-year-old son, Joaquin Oliver, was one of the 17 students and teachers killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Oliver testified in court during the shooter’s trial, where the perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2022. 

Oliver founded Change the Ref, an organization for young people to raise awareness about the consequences of gun violence and advocate for stricter gun regulation laws. Oliver and his wife, Patricia Oliver, also participated in a joint lobby day led by anti-gun violence organizations Newtown Action Alliance and Team Enough.

The groups collaborated to attend a joint congressional hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, titled “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment: When is Enough Enough?” The purpose of the hearing was to discuss whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ limiting of firearms under the Biden administration infringed on the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. At the hearing, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) argued that guns should not be banned in the United States. He said that Mexico’s strict laws, which require gun registration, fail to reduce the number of citizens who have guns. 

Patricia Oliver said Fallon’s comments distressed her, and she yelled at Fallon during the hearing, accusing him of taking her son away from her.

Fallon subsequently requested for the police to remove Patricia and Manuel for their disruption of the hearing. Manuel addressed the room as officials led him away.

“We are using our First Amendment right,” Patricia Oliver said as she was escorted out of the hearing room. 

Soraya Bata (SFS ’24), a member of Team Enough and Georgetown March For Our Lives, another student-led group promoting gun control, grew up an hour and half from Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

Bata said that on lobby days like last Thursday, student activists spend all day in meetings with various members of U.S. Congress to urge them to pass the Federal Assault Weapons Ban or regulate gun trafficking.

“The purpose of the organization is to empower young people to take political and legislative action to fight gun violence,” Bata told The Hoya. “There are infinite reasons why lawmakers need to do better, and we need to hold them accountable.”

Bata missed the interruption herself, but was present at the end of the hearing and said it is understandable that Manuel voiced his opinion, especially since he was defending his wife after Fallon asked to remove her. 

“Based on what happened factually, Oliver had a right to speak up the way he did,” Bata said. “He was existing as a grieving father, and it’s cruel to ask him to sit there silently as the anti-gun regulation representatives said gun violence was not an issue in the U.S.”

Fallon continued the hearing after likening the Olivers’ outburst to the Jan. 6 insurrection and calling Manuel a narcissist for disrupting the hearing.

Bystanders protested his removal and said Manuel was not being violent, though several police officers restrained him on the floor outside the hearing room. The police informed him that he would be arrested if he did not cease talking, according to the Washington, D.C. police’s statement. Capitol Police subsequently arrested him.

Jackson Mittleman (CAS ’23), the federal affairs manager of the Newtown Action Alliance who was in attendance alongside other Georgetown students, is a Newtown, Conn. native who was 11 years old when the Sandy Hook shooter killed a family friend’s son. He joined the group when his best friend’s mother founded it after the 2012 shooting and has organized and attended many of their lobbying events since.

Mittleman, who spent time with Manuel Oliver after his arrest, was frustrated at the hearing’s turn of events and with Manuel’s treatment.

“He was used very disrespectfully as a prop for the GOP,” Mittleman said.

Bata said there is a need for more humanity in politics.

“We have a social and civic duty to show empathy and to respect grieving parents,” Bata said. “The politicians being so cruel forgot the feelings of people who lost their son due to preventable gun violence.”

Mittleman said advocacy groups were able to influence Republican politicians to call for more legal action against gun rights, but only after Monday’s Nashville elementary school shooting killed three children and three adults. 

“One of the most frustrating parts of all of it is that we keep telling the GOP lawmakers that something like this is going to happen, and then they’re all up in arms about it after,” Mittleman said. “We need to be more proactive than reactive.”

Resources: On-campus resources include Health Education Services (202-687-8949) and Counseling and Psychiatric Services (202-687-6985). Additional off-campus resources include the Crisis Text Line (text 741741).