Parkland Dad Praises George H.W. Bush For His Rejection Of The NRA
The father of a teenage girl killed in this year’s mass shooting at a Florida high school praised the late President George H.W. Bush for rejecting the NRA decades ago.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a February mass shooting, tweeted about Bush, who died late Friday night at 94 years old.
“A lot will be written today about President George Bush,” Guttenberg tweeted. “Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, most would think that he always served with honor and decency. This resignation letter that he wrote resigning his NRA membership is only one example.”
A lot will be written today about President George Bush. Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, most would think that he always served with honor and decency. This resignation letter that he wrote resigning his NRA membership is only one example.https://t.co/liV3qKn6n9
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) December 1, 2018
Bush resigned as a lifetime member of the extremist gun group in 1995 after NRA executive vice president at the time, Wayne LaPierre, compared federal agents to Nazis following the 1993 Waco siege and criticized them again following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings in which 168 people were killed.
“To attack Secret Service agents or A.T.F. people or any government law enforcement people as ‘wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms’ wanting to ‘attack law abiding citizens’ is a vicious slander on good people,” Bush wrote in a letter published in The New York Times.
“Al Whicher, who served on my [United States Secret Service] detail when I was Vice President and President, was killed in Oklahoma City,” Bush continued. “He was no Nazi. He was a kind man, a loving parent, a man dedicated to serving his country ― and serve it well he did.”
At the end of his letter, Bush ― an avid hunter and pro-gun enthusiast ― asked that the organization remove his name from their membership list.
Guttenberg has become a strong advocate for better gun control following the shooting that left 17 people dead in Parkland. LaPierre, who is now the NRA’s CEO, has advocated that the only way to stop gun violence is to arm schools with guns.
“We must immediately harden our schools,” LaPierre said just over a week following the Parkland shooting.
In the months since Parkland survivors and families took aim at the NRA, the organization announced it had lost $55 million in income this year.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
