Parkland father calls Rubio ‘pathetic liar’ after reversal on gun control measure

Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, called Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) a “pathetic liar” on CNN on Wednesday for reversing his support for age restrictions on assault-style rifle purchases.

During a high-profile town hall following the Parkland massacre, Rubio said 18-year-olds “should not be able to buy a rifle,” but during his reelection debate on Tuesday evening against his Democratic challenger, Rep. Val Demings, Rubio said the proposal “doesn’t work.”

“That was days after I buried my daughter,” Guttenberg, who is now a vocal proponent of gun control measures, said of Rubio’s endorsement at the 2018 CNN town hall. 

“I was just a dad who wanted to believe him,” Guttenberg continued, to host Erin Burnett. “I didn’t know enough about the issue back then and just how badly he had failed in the years prior. We all know how he’s failed since. He’s a liar. He’s just a pathetic liar.”

At Tuesday evening’s debate, Rubio rejected the proposal to implement age restrictions on assault-style rifles, pointing to as one example a recent shooting in North Carolina, where the suspect is a 15-year-old boy.

“Let me tell you why that law doesn’t work and why that proposal doesn’t work,” Rubio said. “We had a shooter last Thursday — tragic — in North Carolina, he was 15. Where did he get the gun? He didn’t get it from a gun show. He certainly didn’t buy it.”

Investigators have not yet disclosed how the boy got the gun he is accused of using to shoot five people, including his 16-year-old brother.

Guttenberg laid into the Florida Republican on CNN, saying he met with Rubio regularly for a year after Guttenberg’s daughter, Jaime Guttenberg, was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“I stopped after a year, because I started feeling he’s like a dog chasing his tail, running in circles going nowhere,” Gutenberg told the network. “And I got tired of being run around by him like that. He’s useless. He isn’t accomplishing anything. And he lies about it.”

When pressed on his reversal, Rubio at the debate made clear he now wholly rejects those age restrictions.

“Denying the right to buy it is not going to keep them from doing — here’s the fundamental issue,” Rubio added. “The fundamental issue is why are these kids, why are these people going out there and massacring people? Because a lot of people own AR-15s, and they don’t kill everyone. A majority don’t.”

Rubio said at the Tuesday debate that he would support some red flag laws, which create processes for a judge to order the seizure of a person’s firearms if they present a danger to themselves or others.

But the Florida Republican rejected a bipartisan gun safety package passed over the summer, calling its red flag provisions “crazy” and saying he would only support such a measure if just law enforcement were permitted to petition the court.

The federal package allocates $750 million in part to support state-level red flag programs, although some states allow groups other than law enforcement to petition a judge.

“In the aftermath of Parkland, Senator Rubio sat down with Republicans, Democrats, students, parents, law enforcement and others to find common ground,” said Elizabeth Gregory, spokesperson for Rubio’s campaign. “While they didn’t agree on everything, they were able to make significant progress, including with the STOP School Violence Act.”

Updated Thursday at 9:24 a.m.