The father of a 14-year-old girl who was killed earlier this year in a high school shooting is urging people to vote “Democrat across the ballot” and in favor of gun safety in Tuesday’s midterm elections. In one social media post, he made his plea by posting a picture of his daughter’s grave.
“Do not let this become your reality,” Fred Guttenberg tweeted Tuesday. “VOTE like your life depends on it. NO EXCUSES!!!”
Fred’s daughter, Jaime Guttenberg, was among 17 people killed in a Valentine’s Day attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He said in a tweet early Tuesday that since that day, he has dedicated every minute to his fight for his daughter “and for a country where we begin to deal with gun violence.”
“Today, we VOTE!!! TODAY, I VOTE FOR JAIME!!!” he tweeted.
Last week, Jaime’s mother, Jennifer Guttenberg, urged people to vote in favor of candidates who support “common-sense gun safety” in a Newsweek opinion piece.
“How can we feel free when we feel we have to look over our shoulder and worry that we may never see our loved ones again when they leave the house?” she wrote. “How can we be brave when dangerous people who shouldn’t possess guns are out there walking amongst us, armed?”
“Vote like your life depends on it-because it does,” she wrote.
Other parents have taken difference stances in response to the shooting. Andrew Pollack, the father of 18-year-old Meadow Pollack who was killed in the shooting, said in an interview with “Face the Nation” in March that changing federal gun laws is “not achievable” and that the focus should instead be on strengthening school safety.
“If we all focus together, one nation, no political affiliation, we could work together and make the schools safe, and then go fight it out,” he said.
Pollack supported a Florida bill that passed in the wake of the shooting and gives school districts the option to arm teachers, school staff or “guardians,” who are trained normal citizens.
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