re: #124 Charles Johnson

The exchange:

he voice of Neil Heslin quavered frequently as he talked of his son, Jesse Lewis, who died in the massacre. “I’m here today to just hopefully get the word out that changes have to be made. I’ll tell you a little bit about Jesse. He was a boy that loved life, lived it to the fullest. His mother and I are both separated, he spent an equal amount of time with both of us.

“He was my son, he was my buddy, he was my best friend,” Heslin said, his voice breaking. “I never thought I’d be here speaking like this, asking for changes on my son’s behalf. I never thought I’d be laying him to rest. The happiest day of my life was the day he was born, he’s my only son, my only family. And the worst day of my life was the day when this happened and I buried him.”

“I ask if there’s anybody in this room that can give me one reason … why anybody … needs to have one of these assault-style weapons or military weapons or high capacity clips,” Heslin said.

“The Second Amendment shall not be infringed,” shouted several male voices in the crowd.

Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, co-chairman of the task force subcommittee that held the hearing, ordered the crowd to refrain from responding.

Heslin continued: “We’re all entitled to our own opinion. I respect their opinions and their thoughts but I wish they’d respect mine and give it a little bit of thought and realize that it could have been their child that was in that school that day.”

When you have the chair calling for order, that’s telling you that it was heckling and out of line - and that the folks who responded did so out of line.

Heslin had the microphone and was entitled to ask rhetorical questions. The hecklers felt the need to interject.