The night took a heart-wrenching turn as survivors and relatives of people killed by gun violence shared their stories with a rapt and tear-filled audience.

Abbey Clements, a teacher who survived the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, talked as her voice broke about the day 20 first grade children and six of her colleagues were killed.

“Metal folding chairs falling, 154 gun shots blaring, hiding in the coats trying to stay with my students trying to read to them trying to drown out the sounds, terror, crying, running,” she said. “I carry that horrific day with me.“

Kim Rubio, a mother from Uvalde, Texas, talked about reaching “out for the daughter I will never hold again”: her 10-year-old daughter Lexi, who was killed in a school shooting. Several in the crowd shouted, “We love you, Lexi.”

And the crowd welcomed former Rep. Gabby Giffords, an advocate for gun restrictions, to the stage with warm chants of her name as she spoke about the assassination attempt on her in 2011.

“I learned to walk again one step at a time. I learned to talk again one word at a time,” she said, as her husband Sen. Mark Kelly stood beside her, scrolling her speech for her on an iPad.

“Our stories of loss — but make no mistake, our losses do not weaken us,” said Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, herself a survivor of gun violence. “They strengthen our resolve. We will secure safer futures that we all deserve.”