Parents of US gun violence victims use AI to recreate their voices in bid to get Congress to tighten laws
Parents of shooting victims are using AI technology to recreate the voices of their children in a bid to get US politicians to strengthen firearms laws.
A website, where members of the public can hear six voices, states the victims “have a chance to speak again” after violence “stole their voices and ended their dreams”.
The Shotline was created by gun control campaigning groups March For Our Lives and Change The Ref and allows people to send the AI-generated voices of the victims to members of Congress.
The campaign was launched on Wednesday on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland school shooting where 17 people were killed in Florida, including Joaquin Oliver, whose voice is one of the six featured on the site. The 17-year-old boy’s parents founded Change The Ref in his memory.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Deadly shooting in Kansas City
The issue of US gun violence was highlighted again later that same day with a deadly shooting at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade.
Another of the voices on the website is that of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, who was among 19 pupils and two teachers killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022.
In the minute-long recording, his AI-generated voice reveals a love of video games, making friends laugh, and spending time on the trampoline with his family.
“I’m a fourth grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas,” Uziyah’s voice said. “Or at least I was, when a man with an AR-15 came into my school and killed 18 of my classmates, two teachers and me.”
“That was almost two years ago. Nothing has changed. Even more shootings have happened.
“That’s why my family recreated my voice using AI to call you today and demand change. You’ll be getting more calls from others like me, too. What is it going to take for you to help make sure violence like this stops happening?”
Uziyah Garcia
Uziyah’s father, Brett Cross, told Sky News’s Yalda Hakim that “we’ve been his voice for the past 632 days, and yesterday, he was able to have his voice, share his message”.
Mr Cross spoke of his hopes for the project as it highlights children’s deaths: “All we want is for not another child to go through this. We don’t want another parent to have to pick out which cartoon character is going to be on their 10-year-old’s coffin.”
He said the campaign aims to “flood these lines” and make sure the politicians “hear our kids’ voices”.
He said they “are just ignoring us at this point. They’re not listening”.
“Are they going to listen to our kids? Are they going to listen to the voices of children that could have been here had they enacted just common sense gun laws?”
Crosses containing the names of the Uvalde shooting victims. Pic: AP
He warned: “In America, it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen to you [being affected by a shooting].
“It’s a matter of when and we’re trying to prevent that, we’re trying to prevent that for these politicians’ kids, but they just do not see it.”
Read more:
Two weeks of shootings in America
Nine dead after shooting at US shopping mall
Mr Cross stated the NRA (National Rifle Association) gun lobby continues to “push out this propaganda and these agendas” that “good guys with a gun stop bad guys with a gun”.
“Except the only thing that is common in all of these shootings is a gun… they’re not focusing and facing the actual problems. They’re masking it, and they’re getting away with it.”
According to The Shotline website, more than 34,000 calls have been submitted to members of Congress so far.
It’s 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling.
A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees.
A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green t-shirts.
The leader, a man named Francisco “Chavo” Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. “Angry,” a few of them respond. “Proud of the community for pushing back,” says another.
Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. “This is like Vietnam,” he says. “We’re taking losses, but in the end we’re going to win. It’s a war.”
Francisco ‘Chavo’ Romero leads a volunteer group, attempting to warn people ahead of ICE raids
This is what the resistance against Donald Trump’s immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents – known as ICE – have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles.
Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year.
Police use tear gas against protesters, angry at a recent immigration raid at a farm in Camarillo, California. Pic: AP
Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback.
“Chavo” and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations.
The day I meet them, they’re in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions.
A volunteer from Union del Barrio shows Sky’s Martha Kelner how they try to stay one step ahead of ICE agents
They’re looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor “targets”.
“That vehicle looks a little suspicious,” says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, “but there’s nobody in it”.
An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. “He’s the exact target that they’re looking for,” Ron says. “That’s what they’re doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas.”
This man, selling fruit on a street corner in LA, is a potential target of immigration agents
In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening.
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
In June, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at protestors demonstrating against immigration raids
Maria’s husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58.
The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier’s work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally.
Maria’s husband Javier was arrested after his work permit expired
She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away.
“I know they’re doing their job,” she says, “but it’s like, ‘you don’t have to do it like that.’ Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They’re not animals.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
US troops accused of ‘political stunt’ after park raid
Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. “It’s been so hard without him,” she says. “You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he’s not there any more. We’ve never been apart for as long as this.”
The family have a lawyer and is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears he will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country.
Maria fears her husband, who has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, will be sent back to Mexico
“I don’t know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he’s asking me, ‘When is papa coming home?’ and I don’t know what to say. He’s not a criminal.”
The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual.
People in LA are being asked to report sightings of ICE officials so others can be warned
I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she’s watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm.
She’s shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. “I am scared. I am very scared,” she says.
All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive.
Read more from Sky News:
Farmer first to die during ICE raids
Trump warns comic over citizenship
Soledad, who owns a Mexican restaurant, plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive
“They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around,” she says.
“I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry… We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages.”
There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive.
“I’ve told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down.”
The White House says they’re protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day.
The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike