Parkland Father: Tombstone Unveiling Reinforced Decision To Take On Gun Lobby
Fred Guttenberg attempts to shake Brett Kavanaugh’s hand. Image by Getty Images
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime Guttenberg, speaking with Marco Rubio during a town hall televised on CNN Wednesday. Image by YouTube
Nearly a year since the tragic shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, one victim’s father shared on Twitter about the unveiling of her tombstone.
Fred Guttenberg buried his 14-year-old daughter Jaime shortly after the February 14 massacre.
Yesterday we had the unveiling of Jaime’s tombstone. In the Jewish religion, it is a ceremony that happens approx one year after burial. For us, it was reliving this pain all over again. I should have spend these past few months planning her Sweet 16 and instead, I did this.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) January 21, 2019
“At the unveiling, I spoke of her loss and I spoke of the fact that I am still her dad,” he continued. “As her dad, I will never stop dealing with what happened to her. Yesterday only reinforced how tragic and unfair this was.”
A vocal advocate for gun control, Guttenberg used his platform and this occasion to continue to spread a message of resilience message.
“Yesterday only reinforced for me my original decision to weaken the gun lobby,” he wrote. “Yesterday only reinforced for me my mission to remove the gun lobby from the legislative process of gun safety. Kids should come home to parents and parents should go home to kids.”
Yesterday only reinforced for me my original decision to weaken the gun lobby. Yesterday only reinforced for me my mission to remove the gun lobby from the legislative process of gun safety. Kids should come home to parents and parents should go home to kids.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) January 21, 2019
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Israel critics want Radiohead’s lead guitarist cancelled. He says they’re hypocrites.
-
Fast Forward Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s goes on Tucker Carlson and says, ‘I love Jesus Christ’
-
Fast Forward 38% of American Jews believe in life after death, study finds
-
Fast Forward Moved by Oct. 7, Blackstone president donates $125M to Tel Aviv University to address doctor shortage
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion My Holocaust survivor parents would be appalled by what became of their American dream
-
Fast Forward Israel critics want Radiohead’s lead guitarist cancelled. He says they’re hypocrites.
-
Film & TV Is it time for ‘Asterix’ to retire the “Roman” salute?
-
Fast Forward Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s goes on Tucker Carlson and says, ‘I love Jesus Christ’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.