After dropping his daughter Jaime Guttenberg within the Stoneman Douglas Excessive College taking pictures, Fred Guttenberg obtained a name from now-President Joe Biden that impressed him to 'discover function' in his grief.
Fred Guttenberg‘s viral battle cry after he misplaced his daughter Jaime within the college taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College on February 14, 2018, reached the houses and hearts of practically each American, together with, on the time, former Vice President Joe Biden. “It hit me, this was gun violence. And I stated, ‘This time, gun violence got here to the fallacious group and messed with the fallacious dad,” Fred recalled on the HollywoodLife Podcast. “I walked in my home that evening, after that vigil, and I stated, ‘I don’t know the way I’m going to do that, however I’m going to interrupt that f-ing gun foyer.’ And it turned my mission. And later that week, I obtained a name from now-President Joe Biden.”
Following his impassioned speech on the vigil in Parkland, FL, Fred remembered screening a number of calls from household, pals, information retailers, activists, political figures, and past. “I wasn’t answering my telephone if I didn’t have the quantity,” he defined. “I obtained a random name round 1:30 within the afternoon someday, and he left a message, and he simply stated, ‘Hey, Fred, that is Joe Biden and I’d like to speak to you. In the event you’re , I'll name you again at precisely six o’clock, and for those who choose up and also you need to speak nice, if not, I perceive.” To the mourning father’s shock, the now-POTUS known as again at 6 PM sharp, and the 2 “ended up having such a tremendous dialog for about 45 to 50 minutes.”
“Joe Biden is aware of grief,” Fred informed HL, recalling that the POTUS talking to him whereas on his solution to an occasion for the Beau Biden Basis, honoring his late son. “Sooner or later he requested me, ‘So, what's your plan?’ I stated, ‘I don’t have a plan. I simply know I need to break that f-ing gun foyer.’ He stated, ‘You'll, you are able to do it. He began speaking to me about mission and function, and that dialog is once I realized I've a mission and a function.”
The New York native revealed that previous to the Parkland college taking pictures, he had taken a break from work after caring for his brother who misplaced his battle to 9/11-related most cancers. “I used to be going loopy, I didn’t know what to do. I’m not good at waking up and never having a plan. So, I used to be beginning to search for a mission, a function, after which my daughter was killed,” Fred remembered. “When Joe Biden stated that to me, it stopped every part else in its tracks and have become clear to me this was the one factor that made sense of what I can do going ahead. And it’s been that method since.”
Fred has since devoted himself to ‘breaking the f-ing gun foyer,’ and he’s made a big dent in it lately, working in tandem with many activists and President Joe Biden to signal into legislation the primary gun management invoice in practically 30 years. In keeping with The New York Occasions, the bipartisan gun invoice “will increase the background examine system for potential gun patrons below the age of 21, giving authorities as much as 10 enterprise days to look at juvenile and psychological well being data. It units apart thousands and thousands of dollars so states can fund intervention packages, equivalent to psychological well being and drug courts, and perform so-called pink flag legal guidelines that enable authorities to quickly confiscate weapons from any particular person discovered by a decide to be too harmful to own them.”
“A good friend of mine who’s working for Congress described the invoice as needed, however not enough, and I feel that sums it up,” Fred informed HL of the brand new invoice. “Whereas I wanted we might have raised the age to [purchase a gun] to 21, we couldn’t get all of the votes wanted to try this. However now, having a mechanism with which to place extra consideration on these below 21 who're making an attempt to purchase these weapons, and prolong the importance of the background checks and join legislation enforcement and the FBI as a part of that course of will completely cease younger folks in a second of disaster from shopping for a weapon that they could use to commit hurt.”
“For 30 years, these on the opposite aspect at all times knew and stated, ‘You’ll by no means get something handed.’ They usually knew it. They have been proper. However we’ve damaged by way of that wall,” he smiled. “It’s now not about whether or not or not we are able to get something handed. Now it’s solely about what’s potential. what extra we are able to do to save lots of lives. That’s what that is all about. This isn’t about limiting rights of gun house owners. That’s a bunch of BS. That is about saving lives.”