Harris urges states to pass red flag laws during Parkland visit
Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday announced new gun safety initiatives from Parkland, Florida, after walking through the old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building, where 17 people were killed by a gunman in 2018.
The vice president was in the state Saturday to meet with victims’ families and to see the high school, which was preserved as evidence for the shooter’s trial that concluded in late 2022. The building will be demolished this summer.
Harris, who spent hours inside the building on Saturday, walked up to the podium for her remarks as the Parkland families stood behind her holding photos of their late children.
“I will say thank you to the leaders of this community, starting with these families. This school is soon going to be torn down. But the memory of it will never be erased,” Harris said. “And let us through the courage and the call to action of these families find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us.”
The vice president has played a growing role in the administration’s gun safety work and will continue to serve as a leading voice on the issue for the 2024 cycle. President Joe Biden tapped her in the fall to oversee the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
She announced on Saturday the launch of the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which will support states in the implementation of red flag laws. The center, funded by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, will provide training and technical assistance to states and localities.
Harris also made a plea for states across the country to pass red flag laws, and to use the funding from the 2022 gun safety legislation to implement these programs. Twenty-nine states currently don’t have red flag laws. Of the 21 states that do have these laws, only six are using Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Funding to implement them.
“Part of why I’m here today is to challenge every state. Pass a red flag law,” Harris said. “See how these leaders and these parents, through their advocacy born out of tragedy, have changed some of the laws in this state.”
The building Harris walked through on Saturday has been preserved for criminal purposes for several years. The gunman was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2022 after a jury failed to unanimously recommend the death penalty.
About 10 months ago, the state attorney general turned control of the building back to the school district.
Fred Guttenberg and Max Schachter, who lost their kids in the shooting, proposed the idea of bringing in elected officials, law enforcement and school administrators so that they could learn from the space to prevent other school shootings across the country.
Once the White House gun office was announced six months ago, Guttenberg pressed Biden’s team to have staff walk through the space before it’s demolished. Harris, as well as the gun office’s deputies, Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox, told Guttenberg they wanted to make the trip.
“This building exists at a minimum before it gets torn down,” Guttenberg said in an interview with POLITICO. “Let it be able to teach lessons.”
