Father of Parkland victim reacts to Vance saying school shootings a ‘fact of life’

The 14 year old suspect in the Georgia high school shooting, along with his father, are back in jail right now after making their first court appearance as Colt, gray was only in front of a judge for a few minutes. He could face life in prison if convicted. He he's charged with four counts of felony murder after killing two students and two teachers on Wednesday. Nine others were wounded just minutes after the suspected shooter was let out of the courtroom. His father, Colin, walked in for his own arraignment. He sat down in front of the judge and had his charges read to him for the same crime. Colin Gray's, arrest affidavit alleges he gave his son a firearm, quote, with knowledge he was a threat to himself and others. These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt to possess a weapon. He is in custody at this time. The arrest was made when we had the probable cause to make the arrest. Our next guest knows the tragedy of losing a child to gun violence. All too well. His 14 year old daughter, Jamie Guttenberg, was killed in the parkland school shooting in 2018. Since dedicated his life to fighting for gun safety. Our Fred Guttenberg joins us now. Fred, thank you back for being back on the program. We have you back far too often, unfortunately. But I do want to ask you what what's your reaction to the suspect's father facing charges in this case? What do you take away from that? Listen, the father, should be charged. The book should be thrown at him. The father. The father bought the gun for this kid. After the FBI visited and law enforcement visited. The father absolutely is responsible and must be held to account. But listen, I want to say something else because, you know, following the news of the father, there was also a whole lot of other news about comments from JD Vance. yeah. And we're going to get to that. I do want to play that. Yeah, I do want to play. But but it matters. Yeah, it matters here because this is this case, this this shooting puts an end to every lie about why we're in the place that we are today. This father, I hope he rots in the most evil place in the universe along with his son. This was a preventable act of gun violence. And and and and sadly, until we take on the reality that our policy choices and politicians who refuse to make the right policy choices, accept the change that we need, this will happen again. Yeah. I mean, the system is riddled with loopholes, as you know, and openings and vulnerabilities. Police say, gray bought his son this gun for Christmas. That's months after authorities first contacted the family about a separate school shooting threat last year. although, this kid denied making those threats. I mean, it's remarkable. I mean, people talk all the time about, well, if there's tougher enforcement and there, visits to the home from authorities, they can prevent these sorts of things. And then it didn't happen. Well, listen. And and to some extent, in moments like this, we're also, subject to local laws. And unfortunately, in the state of Georgia, the laws are not acceptable. They had no red flag law. Okay. There's no safe storage law. Okay. and so, you know, the the kinds of laws that smart states and smart communities and on a national level are being pushed now are that are stopping these things. They weren't in place here. And Fred, let's talk about what you just mentioned a few moments ago. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, had this to say about, what took place in Georgia. Here was his response. Clearly, strict gun laws is not the thing that is going to solve this problem. What is going to solve this problem? And I really do believe this is look, I don't like this. I don't like to admit this. I don't like that this is a fact of life. But if you're if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets and we have got to bolster security at our schools. First of all, we have to get out of the way. I mean, it's a fact of life in the United States. It doesn't have to be, but it's not a fact of life around the world. But your response to that? Well, but it's not even a fact of life in the United States. There's 115,000 schools in the United States. There are far fewer than 100 school shootings per year. And so here's my response. You know, I joined the Brady Pack as a senior advisor because there is only one way to solve the the the incorrect assessments and the bad policy prescriptions of people like JD Vance. And it's to make sure we get them out of the world of politics and we get them out of any decision making when it comes to our public safety. What JD Vance, says is a fact of life. Well, for me, that would be true. I visit my daughter at the cemetery. But I will tell you last year we invited every member of Congress to walk through the parkland school where my daughter was shot. It is still an untouched crime scene. The blood is there, the DNA is there. The coursework was still on the desks, as if the kids had just walked away from them. JD Vance never showed up. He didn't come. But you know who did? Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris came and walked that building with me. Because rather than taking this as a fact of life that we need to accept, she wanted to see every thing that led to the tragedy that could have been done to stop it, and how we actually need to rethink schools and public safety going forward. In a world where there are 400 million plus weapons that aren't only making their ways into schools, but making them into political rallies. I mean, JD Vance forgets Donald Trump was shot just a couple of months ago. And so this is not something we have to say is a fact of life. It is uniquely American, but it is also a fact of failed policy and failed politicians. And we get to fix this with our vote. Right. And one of the other facts of life is that you the polls show that a vast majority of Americans want, tougher background checks. They want a whole host of gun safety laws that just aren't getting through the Congress. because of opposition from the gun lobby. And that, too, is a that, too, is a fact of life. I mean, that's just a fact, that it's a fake. These laws can't get through the Congress, and they can't get signed by the president because of the gun lobby. That's a fact of life. It's a fact of life. You know, Jim, I'm going to tell you, about two months ago, I visited the ATF alcohol, tobacco firearms facility in West Virginia, where they are responsible for storing every transaction related to the sale of a gun. And because of Congress, this is a fact of life that we all need to deal with, and we need to fire those who are behind it because of Congress. They are congressionally mandated into not updating the storage of those records. They are literally held in 30,000 boxes on pieces of paper. Because of Congress, they're not allowed to update. So the ATF has to go to Adobe and say, we're going to pay you money to dumb down your software because we're not allowed to store digital records here. That is because of Congress, because of Congress and the ATF, which is responsible for helping to track gun transactions that would put guns in the hands of people who shouldn't have them, or to solve gun crimes. They are prohibited from doing. Excuse me, from doing their job. That's a fact of life. But it is a fact of failed policy from failed politicians who we can fire. We don't need to accept this as normal. Always good to talk to you. Thanks for joining us.