Last week, Fred Guttenberg’s 14-year-old daughter, Jamie, was brutally murdered, gunned down in the back, at Stoneman Douglas High School. Last night, Mr. Guttenberg found the courage to attend the CNN town hall with Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ted Deutch to discuss where we go from here.
Guttenberg immediately challenged Sen. Rubio, calling his comments after the shooting, “pathetically weak.” He tried to get Sen. Rubio to admit that “guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in this school this week.” Rubio flailed and tap danced around the subject but Fred Guttenberg did not let up. Watch the extraordinary exchange (full transcript and video below):
GUTTENBERG: Senator Rubio, I just listened to your opening and thank you. I want to like you. Here's the problem. And, I'm a brutally honest person, so I'm just going to say it up front.
When I like you, you know it and when I'm pissed at you, you know it. Your comments this week, and those of our president, have been pathetically weak.
(APPLAUSE)
So, you and I are now eye to eye. Because I want to like you. Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in this school this week. And, look at me and tell me you accept it, and you will work with us to do something about guns.
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RUBIO: Fred, first of all, let me explain what I said this week. And I'll repeat it -- I'll repeat what I said. And, then I'm going to tell you what we're going to do.
(BOOING)
RUBIO: We’re going to talk about guns and we’re going to talk about what I said this (inaudible). This is what I said. I said that the problems that we are facing --
GUTTENBURG: Let -- let him speak. I think we need to hear it.
RUBIO: I’m saying that the problems that we’re facing here today cannot be solved by gun laws alone. And I’m going to tell you what we’ve done already and what I hope we’ll do moving forward.
GUTTENBURG: Were guns the factor in the hunting of our kids?
RUBIO: Of course they were. And here’s what --
GUTTENBURG: It’s the weapons of choice. Can you say that?
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RUBIO: Number one Fred, I absolutely believe that in this country if you are 18 years of age you should not be able to buy a rifle and I will support a law that takes that right away.
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GUTTENBURG: Fantastic.
RUBIO: I will support --
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RUBIO: I will support the banning of bump stocks and I know that the president has ordered the attorney general to do it and if he doesn’t, we should do it by law. I will support changing our background system so that it includes more information than it includes now and that all states across the country are required or incentivized to report all the information into it.
And let me tell you what I’ve done already. In -- last year when we came up with our budget in the Senate, I pushed for and got approved $50 million a year through the Sandy Hook Initiative to provide a threat assessment fund for -- for all states to be able to stand up in each of the school districts a way to identify people who could potentially do this, and get ahead of it before it happens.
I -- I support -- I support moving forward on that initiative and making it widely available for everyone around the country. Now I think what you’re asking about is the assault weapons ban.
GUTTENBURG: Yes sir.
RUBIO: So let me be honest with you about that one. If I believed that that law would have prevented this from happening, I would support it. But I want to explain to you why it would not.
(BOOING)
GUTTENBURG: Senator Rubio, my daughter running down the hallway at Marjory Stoneman Douglas was shot in the back.
RUBIO: Yes, sir.
GUTTENBURG: With an assault weapon, the weapon of choice.
RUBIO: Yes, sir.
GUTTENBURG: OK. It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can’t stand with everybody in this building and say that, I’m sorry.
RUBIO: Sir, I do believe what you’re saying is --
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RUBIO: I do believe -- I do believe what you’re saying is true. I do believe what you’re saying --
(BOOING)
TAPPER: Everyone -- everyone. The senator has the right to be heard. He’s answering Mr. Guttenburg’s question.
RUBIO: I do believe what you’re saying is true. I believe that someone like this individual and anyone like him shouldn’t have any gun. Not this gun, any gun. But I want to explain to you for a moment the problem with the law that they call the assault weapons ban. And if you’ll give me -- and indulge me for a minute to explain to you the problem. First you have to define what it is. If you look at the law and it’s definition, it basically bans 200 models of gun -- about 220 specific models of gun.
GUTTENBURG: Good. Good.
(APPLAUSE)
RUBIO: But it makes -- but it -- but it -- it allows legal 2,000 other types of gun that are identical. Identical, in the way that they function and how fast they fire and the type of caliber that they fire and the way they perform. They’re indistinguishable from the ones that become illegal. And the only thing that separates the two types -- the only thing that separates the two types is, if you put a plastic handle grip on one it becomes banned, if it doesn’t have a plastic handle it does not become banned.
So let me explain if I may, just for a moment more.
GUTTENBURG: Are you saying --
RUBIO: What the problem has been with the law --
GUTTENBURG: Are you saying you will start with the 200 and work your way up?
RUBIO: I would explain what has happened --
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GUTTENBURG: I’ll -- It’s a place to start. We can do that.
RUBIO: Well -- let me -- let me explain to you what’s happened. So in New York they have passed that ban. And you know what they’ve done to get right around it? It took them 15 seconds to do it. They simply take the plastic tip off of it. They just take the plastic grip off of the front or the back --
GUTTENBURG: So we don’t (inaudible)?
RUBIO: The same gun and it becomes legal, performs the exact same way. So what my belief is -- my belief remains that rather than continue to try to chase every loophole that’s created. That’s why it failed in ’94. It’s why they’re getting around it now in California, it’s how they get around it in New York -- is we instead should make sure that dangerous criminals, people that are deranged cannot buy any gun of any kind. That’s what I believe a better answer will be.
(BOOING)
GUTTENBURG: Your answer speaks for itself.