Fred Guttenberg joined the HollywoodLife Podcast and highlighted how critical it is to elect Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, in order to address a variety of major issues, including abortion and gun safety. “If you want gun safety, if you want the freedom of choice, if you want to do something about the environment, if you want voting rights, the only way to save democracy is to go ahead and vote [for] Democrats in this election cycle,” he explained on the podcast. “Rebuild what was once the Republican Party, and we can worry about who’s voting for different parties in a future election. Not this one.”
The gun safety activist, who lost his daughter Jaime, 14, in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, emphasized how important it is to exercise your right to vote this coming November. “If you think your vote doesn’t matter, you’re wrong. [The new gun safety] legislation [recently signed by President Joe Biden] was only possible because we voted [in large numbers] in 2018 and 2020. [So] get off your butts and get out there and vote in November, because a whole lot depends on it, and voting matters,” he said.
Not only did Fred tell HL how important it is for Americans to vote, but he warned that there could be negative repercussions for President Joe Biden and America if the Republicans win both the House of Representatives and the Senate. “This may be the election, where we either hold on to the chance to continue fighting for [democracy], or we permanently lose it,” he warned. “[Republicans] have made it clear [that] if they end up with both House and the Senate, the first thing they’re going to do is move to impeach Biden.”
As a prominent gun safety activist, Fred stressed how important it is to pass sensible gun legislation, especially following recent deadly mass shootings, such as the one in Uvalde, Texas. “Do we want to be okay with a bastardized interpretation of the Second Amendment that allows us to be in a place where our own personal security is always at risk, where our right to life is always at risk, or do we want to do something about it?” he asked.
Fred is sure that most Americans are in favor of gun control legislation (like the recent bipartisan gun bill that Congress passed and Biden signed at the end of June), and that’s why it’s necessary for voters to go to the ballot box and elect officials who are in favor of gun safety laws. “We as a country now have a responsibility to put the brakes on [gun sales], and this legislation was a start,” he said. “The violence we’re seeing now is predictable. It was also preventable, and we still have the chance to do more. We’re never going to get rid of gun violence at this point, but we can start turning the curb. We can lower the gun violence death rate. We can reduce the incidences of gun violence.”