‘Let them see this untouched crime scene’

Vice President Kamala Harris walked through a former crime scene in Florida on Saturday and met with affected families, more than six years after a gunman killed 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

No one has occupied the building since the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida. It remains untouched, with coursework still scattered on desks from that day. Harris, accompanied by Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox, the deputy directors of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, saw shattered glass, walls covered with bullet holes and blood-stained floors as she walks the path of the shooter. Officials will demolish the building this summer.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, was killed in the shooting, helped push the White House to show up for a walkthrough and met with Harris. A senior adviser to Brady United Against Gun Violence, he talked with POLITICO about why he sees this moment as vital for the gun violence movement.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you organize this trip? 

About 10 months ago, the state attorney turned the building back over to the school. It had been a crime scene used for different criminal purposes. Once it was turned over to the school, we had this idea that we should start bringing in elected leaders, administrators, and law enforcement. Let them see this untouched crime scene. This building exists at a minimum before it gets torn down. Let it be able to teach lessons.

And so over the course of the 10 months — and I credit Max Schachter [Max's son, Alex, was another victim in the Parkland shooting] with the idea — he and I have organized a lot of different walkthroughs with different people. And once the Office of Gun Violence Prevention was set up, I immediately said to Rob Wilcox and Greg Jackson, the White House should walk through this building. They immediately said, 'You’re right.' And then the vice president said she would be a part of this as well.

Why does it matter that she sees this? 

There may not be another building like this that exists anywhere. To see what happened and what could have been done, and to have that drive decision making and policy possibly going forward — is such a big deal. And I don’t just mean in terms of different things that can be done on gun violence prevention work. Think about what she’s going to see. She’s going to see a building that was constructed with big glass panes in the doors. That weren’t bulletproof. That didn’t have self-locking doors. That wasn’t designed to protect kids if a shooter decided to come into the school. And I tell you all of this because the building that was built to replace it, if a shooter walks in that building, nobody will die. Self-locking doors. Recessed, bullet proof glass. Well-marked corners. And she’s going to see the difference. We have to rethink how we are building our buildings in an age of 400 million weapons in America.

I know this won’t be the first time you’ve walked through. What was that first experience like for you? 

I did not walk through many of the early walkthroughs that happened because I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The anxiety over walking by the spot where I know my daughter died. I couldn’t do it. And then, I believe, it was when we had Secretary of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona here, I decided that, you know, he’s coming because I asked him, along with Max Schachter. And I said, I’m going to walk through with him, and I did.

It was as bad as you can imagine. Not just the reality of what you know you’re walking through, but it is an untouched crime scene. It’s all there, and walking — and I’m going to cry talking about it — but walking on the third floor, by the stairwell that my daughter turned into and made it to within one second of her life. And literally just sitting in the spot where she died is something that I’ll never get over. But also because of the fact that she died there, it’s also the reason why I’ll never stop trying to do this work to stop the next one.

How are you processing the building being demolished? 

It’s time. The building will have served a purpose that I don’t think any of us would have thought a year ago when it was just being kept open for the criminal trials. But the idea, listen, someone else — I won’t say who — who’s been through Auschwitz and who has been through this building, too, said there’s a similar feeling. Because it was a way of preserving history and teaching a lesson that nothing else could’ve done in any other way.

Is there anything else you and the families hope the vice president walks away with? 

I’ll answer in two ways. So the first one is the policy. Three weeks after the Parkland shooting, we passed meaningful gun safety legislation in Florida. One of the things that we passed was the Red Flag Law, which has now been used over 12,000 times in the state. Had that law been in effect before Feb. 14, 2018, the shooting doesn’t happen. And so I do hope that the ability to more meaningfully discuss red flag laws, extreme risk protection orders, how much they matter and how they should be the law of the land without question. The monster who did this was a known threat. And before Feb. 14, 2018, the mechanism to do something about that known threat didn’t exist, but it does because of what happened there. I think her ability just to see that clearly there, I hope leads to ongoing enhanced conversation around red flag laws.

Number two, we’ve been building schools in America to deal with fires, to protect kids and educators from fires — fire suppression systems, fire alarms, fire drills. We’ve been doing it for a long time. Not a single person has died of a fire in the school since the ‘50s. And I think we need to have a similar conversation in this country about schools and public buildings in an age of 400 million weapons. We need to rethink everything. We are able to look forward and build schools differently or retrofit schools to save lives. And we need to have that conversation.

Beyond this, is there a message the families will deliver to the VP? 

As a general rule, every family agrees this should never have happened in America, and that there is more that must be done to stop the next one. And we’re going to ask her to go forward — to never forget what she experienced today.