As residents of Parkland approach, Feb. 14 with a sense of dread, a New York Congresswoman is talking gun control laws.
U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, (D) New York, is using this occasion, the three-year mark of the horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to introduce a package of five gun control bills, and she was joined in that effort by an activist Parkland dad.
“Since my daughter was killed, I’d love to say we’ve done some really tremendous things on a national level, but we haven’t," said Fred Guttenberg in a virtual news conference. "The truth is the epidemic of failure to deal with this issue has continued."
His daughter, Jaime, was among the 17 lives lost that day as a teenage gunman mowed people down, with an assault rifle he bought legally.
Maloney’s bills would close the so-called gun show loophole, strengthen background checks, require gun owners to have liability insurance, eventually require handguns to have personalization technology so only their owners can fire them, and make it a felony to buy a gun for someone who can’t legally have one.
“This package of bills is focused on safety, by making sure those who would normally be prevented from owning guns can’t skirt the law,” Maloney said.
Guttenberg has dedicated much of his time to advocating for stricter gun control measures for the past three years.
Parkland School Tragedy
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“I intend to be spending a lot of time in Washington working to get this legislation passed and we are gonna get it passed,” Guttenberg said.
His views favoring gun control are not supported by some of the parents who lost children in the massacre.
Ryan Petty and Andrew Pollack, for example, each believe stricter gun control measures would not have prevented the shooting at MSD High School.
Even in a Congress controlled by Democrats, getting all five of those measures passed into law is a tall order. Guttenberg said he will work to persuade those who are on the other side.
