UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Alexandria Aniyah Rubio was opinionated like her mother, and she played basketball and softball like her father. When she got older she wanted to go to college on a softball scholarship and to become an attorney.

Lexi, as she was known to family and friends, was among the 19 children and two teachers who were shot to death during the May 24 attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Her family asked mourners to wear bright colours to Lexi’s funeral on Saturday at First Baptist Church in Uvalde because Lexi loved them.

Lexi wanted to major in math one day at St Mary’s University in San Antonio, where her mother is a student, the family said in an obituary posted on a funeral home’s website. They described her as “sarcastic, but caring, giving”.

“When she knew she was right — she so often was — she stood her ground,” her mother, Kimberly Mata-Rubio, said Wednesday during a congressional hearing on gun safety. “She was firm, direct, voice unwavering.”

She also described her daughter as “intelligent, compassionate and athletic”.

Mata-Rubio is a reporter at the local newspaper and Lexi’s father is a Uvalde County sheriff’s deputy. During the hearing in Washington they urged Congress to pass tougher gun laws, including one that would raise to 21 the age to buy guns like the one used in the attack.

“We stand for Lexi, and as her voice, we demand action,” her mother said.

Lexi admired Democratic US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, her obituary said. Her parents told The New York Times that they turned down an invitation to meet with Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott.

“My first thought was, ‘My Lexi doesn’t even like him,’ “ Mata-Rubio told the newspaper. “She was really little but we talked about this stuff at home.”