Garland speaks with victims' families as new exhibit highlights the faces of gun violence

Children fatally shot in their classrooms. Law enforcement gunned down while doing their jobs. Victims of domestic violence. And people killed on American streets.

Photos of their faces line the wall as part of a new exhibit inside the federal agency in Washington that's responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws. It's meant to serve as a powerful reminder to law enforcement of the human toll of gun violence they are working to prevent.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday told relatives of those killed and survivors that America’s gun violence problem can sometimes feel so enormous that it seems like nothing can be done. But, he added, “that could not be farther from the truth.”

“In the effort to keep our country safe from gun violence, the Justice Department will never give in and never give up," Garland said during a dedication ceremony Tuesday inside the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “We know what is at stake.”

Garland's remarks came after he met privately with some relatives of those whose photos are included in the exhibit. They were in Washington for a summit at ATF that brought together people impacted by gun violence, law enforcement and others to discuss ways to prevent the bloodshed. Among other participants were survivors like Mia Tretta, who was shot at Saugus High School in California in 2019 and has become an intern at ATF.

The more than 100 faces on the wall include Dylan Hockley, one of 20 first graders killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School; Tiffany Enriquez, a police officer killed in Hawaii in 2020; and Ethel Lance, a victim of the 2015 Charleston church shooting in South Carolina. They will remain there until next year, when photos