“The gun lobby is controlling the regulators while our communities are paying the price, burying loved ones and raising children in fear… The shame and sham of it all.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, during a House Oversight subcommittee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) discussed the public health crisis of gun violence and criticized the Trump Administration for weakening accountability for gun dealers who violate federal law, fueling illegal gun trafficking into states like Massachusetts, and defending policies that limit access to data that communities need to combat gun violence. The Congresswoman’s question line follows the shooting this week in which a gunman armed with an assault-style weapon opened fire on random drivers and pedestrians traveling along Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

In her questioning of Robert Cekada, the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Congresswoman Pressley highlighted the communities bearing the lifelong trauma of gun violence, including children, young people, and families, and contrasted them with those the Administration has instead been catering to, the gun lobby.

A transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks during debate on the legislation is available below, and the video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Slams Trump Admin for Fueling Gun Violence, Weakening Accountability for Gun Dealers
House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement
May 14, 2026 

REP. PRESSLEY: Director Cekada, gun violence is a public health crisis, and this administration is failing to meet it with the urgency that it demands.

Across our country, including in my district, the Massachusetts 7th, families are bearing the devastating consequences of shootings, trafficking, domestic violence, femicide, suicide and community trauma. 

Just this past Monday, a gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire on random drivers and pedestrians traveling along Memorial Drive in Cambridge, terrorizing people in broad daylight. Constituents in my district and communities across this country should not have to live with the constant fear that their daily commute could become a mass casualty event. 

Now, while Massachusetts has some of the strongest gun safety laws in the nation, more than two-thirds of guns recovered from crimes in our Commonwealth originate from out of state. At the same time, communities are demanding accountability. 

Director Cekada, your agency has weakened oversight of gun dealers by ending the zero tolerance policy for firearm dealers who violate the law. Mr. Director, yes or no, should gun dealers who willfully sell firearms to prohibited individuals be allowed to continue operating? Yes or No.

DIRECTOR CEKADA: Your statement is a violation of the law, and they should be put out of business if they willfully violate the Gun Control Act.

REP. PRESSLEY: Alright, that’s right. These dealers are breaking the law, and previously would have had their licenses to sell revoked, but your agency repealed that policy. 

Accountability should not be a radical concept here. Instead, your agency has chosen to weaken enforcement while simultaneously defending policies that limit access to data that communities need to combat gun violence. 

This is bad public policy. This is bad for public safety. This is bad for public health. 

Survivors of gun violence carry lifelong trauma, especially our children, increasingly so, a childhood is a privilege instead of a right. Young people are growing up internalizing trauma as a normal part of daily life. Active shooter drills, memorials outside of school, parents afraid to allow their children to walk home alone. 

Now, all the data supports that exposure to gun violence has profound and lasting impacts on childhood development, mental and physical health and educational attainment. In the full oversight committee, I convened the first ever Congressional hearing on childhood trauma. It was illuminating and devastating. 

Children who witnessed gun violence are more likely to experience anxiety, depression and PTSD well into adulthood. These children and their families are the people you should be centering in your work, Director Sakata.

I believe the people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power. But let’s look at who you are instead holding close to the power. Not the traumatized children, not the grieving mothers, not the classroom educators who everyday wonder, “Is today the day that I will have to shield my student from a shooter.”

Instead, this is a picture from your signing ceremony announcing over 30 changes to end gun safety protections, and standing directly behind you are the leaders of the gun lobby, the NRA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the National Association for Gun Rights, and others who have spent decades obstructing commonsense gun safety measures. 

The gun lobby is controlling the regulators while our communities are paying the price, burying loved ones and raising children in fear.

The shame and the sham of it all.

I yield back.

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