Actors Melissa Joan Hart, Wilson Cruz call for action on gun violence

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to correct attribution of quotes at the roundtable.

Actors Melissa Joan Hart and Wilson Cruz joined with victims of gun violence to call on lawmakers to take action on gun control reform as they recounted their personal experiences with gun violence during a Senate roundtable event Wednesday.

“I didn’t prepare a statement today. Because my statement has been prepared for me. On March 27, my son survived the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. As a mother of a mass shooting survivor, living in a community of victims and survivors, we’ve experienced firsthand the devastation of gun violence and death,” Melissa Alexander, the mother of a Covenant School shooting survivor, said during the roundtable.

“I’m here today because as a conservative family, and as lifelong gun owners, mother of a mass shooting survivor who’s also a hunter who has his own guns, and a family of hunters who knows how to properly handle weapons. I’m here today to lend my voice to this cause. I’m begging for change. I’m begging for our children’s lives,” Alexander added.

The Covenant School shooting in Nashville last year left six victims dead, including three 9-year-old children. It led President Biden and other Democratic leaders to call for strong gun control legislation, but that would likely face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House.

Hart also joined in to call for legislation on gun violence. She is best known for her roles in television series including, “Clarissa Explains It All,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Melissa & Joey.” At the time of the Covenant School shooting, Hart said she helped Nashville kids flee to safety.

Hart recounted her personal experience with the Covenant School shooting during the roundtable on Wednesday.

“And as I reached to help the children and help them cross the road, it became clear that whatever they were running from was scarier than these cars in the street. And the fear on their faces and the terror and the confusion as we got them to safety,” she said. “And then the six ambulances that drove by us and let us know exactly what it happened. These memories will not allow me to stop fighting for ways to keep our children and our communities and our country safer.”

Cruz, an actor on “Star Trek: Discovery,” recounted losing his aunt in the Pulse Club shooting in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 people dead in 2016.

“I am a nephew and a family member devastated by gun violence. My aunt, Brenda Marquez McCool, was murdered at the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting while she placed her body between the shooter and her son, who survived,” Cruz said. ”I’m also here as a citizen who’s exhausted.”

“This bill calls for a ban on weapons that were literally created in order to end human life, to destroy human bodies,” he continued. “If we claim to be a society that values life, the very least we can do is pass this bill and save more human lives by removing these instruments of terror.”

The roundtable was organized by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who introduced the GOSAFE Act that would “regulate the sale, transfer, and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic weapons.”

–Updated on Jan. 25 at 8:35 a.m.