Kerry Kennedy thought of father's assassination when shooter rushed security at gala dinner

Lawyer and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy has praised a "superhero" member of Congress for shielding her when an active shooter attempted to storm the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, DC.

Gunshots rang out inside the Washington Hilton at about 8:35pm, local time, prompting hundreds of journalists, photographers and dignitaries in the subterranean ballroom to take cover beneath tables and chairs.

Ms Kennedy said she was mid-conversation with Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative for Maryland, when the room fell into disarray.

"Suddenly, people started yelling, 'Get down, get down,'" she told MS NOW on Sunday.

"So I immediately laid down and my head was on the lap of a Boston Globe journalist and my knees were on a United States senator, and then Jamie just used his whole body to shield me like the hero that he is and he kept whispering, 'You're OK, you're OK, you're OK.'"

Moments later, Secret Service agents spilled into the room and began evacuating cabinet members.

"You could see the terror on the eyes of the people they were pulling out of the room," Ms Kennedy said.

Among them was Ms Kennedy's brother, Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr, though she did not see him or his wife, Cheryl Hines, get whisked away by agents.

Kerry and Robert's father, Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in California while campaigning for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Their uncle, John F Kennedy, had been assassinated five years earlier in Texas.

"I was just thinking so much about my dad, who was killed by a shooter in a situation like that; about my incredibly mighty mother, who was … pregnant at the time with her 11th child."

Ms Kennedy estimated the chaos lasted about five minutes before people rose to their feet again.

"During those minutes, I was so scared. It was like my body could not move — I had no control of my body," she said.

"It was just this kind of whimpering coming out of my mouth, which I had no control of."

She said she was grateful for Mr Raskin and for the Secret Service agents who responded to the incident.

"… [He] is such a superhero, just putting his life on the line to protect me," she said.

The alleged suspect, who has been identified by several US outlets as 31-year-old teacher and engineer Cole Tomas Allen, was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, according to police.

Mr Raskin told CNN the "first thing" Ms Kennedy said after the chaos subsided was: "This is happening in schools across the country, and kids have no resources to process their trauma."

"She was talking about gun violence and thinking about other people. She's a great human rights activist," he said.

"And nobody wants to be in a situation like that, but I was glad to have been with her."

Ms Kennedy used her appearance on MS NOW to call for stronger gun control laws.

"Just think about all these children, kindergarteners, who are experiencing the same thing in their schools in our country," she said.

"Why? There's no reason for this, and that's something that doesn't happen in other countries — it just doesn't happen. It's all about access to guns.

"I mean, we have to stop this insanity in our country with allowing anybody and everybody to buy guns and make it so easy for them to buy guns.

"You know, there are more gun dealers than there are McDonald's in our country. We've got to stop this."

A 2023 report by Everytown for Gun Safety found the US had nearly 78,000 licensed gun dealers — more than the number of McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and Wendy's locations combined.

Citing law enforcement documents and a senior official, NBC News reported the suspected gunman, Mr Allen, bought his guns legally.