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Parkland dad seeks meeting with GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene whom he calls 'mentally unfit' for attacking young gun safety activist David Hogg

Jun 7, 2022, 04:19 IST
Business Insider
Fred Guttenberg.Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Giffords Law Center
  • Fred Guttenberg says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is "mentally unfit" for harassing activist David Hogg.
  • Guttenberg's daughter was among 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
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The father of a teen slain in the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, says Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is "mentally unfit" for repeatedly harassing gun-control activist David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting and co-founder of March for Our Lives.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was among the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, also hopes he can meet with the controversial Georgia Republican when he's in Washington to push for tougher gun legislation and for a gun safety march set for June 11.

Guttenberg told Insider Greene's "claim to fame" is her harassment of Hogg, starting when she was seen on video confronting him as a teenager in 2019. On Sunday, the far-right Georgia conservative and gun-rights supporter trolled Hogg again on Twitter, accusing him of trying to "manipulate some of my gutless weak colleagues to vote for gun control."

"She is delusional and deranged," Guttenberg said.

Guttenberg responded to two of her tweets, telling her she can meet with him this week and that he will bring pictures of his daughter. He and other gun-control supporters will be in DC for the June 11 march, organized by March For Our Lives, after mass shootings last month in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

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A spokesperson for Greene did not respond to a request for comment.

"She's really great at harassing but she doesn't want to actually talk to anybody who has got a different point of view," Guttenberg told Insider. "I'm hoping that she will invite me into her office. I have much I want to say to her."

Guttenberg said he wants to know more about the incident she has been citing at her high school in 1990, when an armed student held other students hostage. Greene, who was not among those taken hostage, has been referencing the incident as part of her call for eliminating gun-free school zones.

"I'd like to understand if it's maybe having an impact on her mental health," he said. "And if she's been for any mental health checks because she clearly is in need of some."

Guttenberg said he also wants to talk to Greene about Parkland since it wasn't that long ago that she promoted a false conspiracy theory that the shooting was staged, and about his brother Michael, who died in 2017 from cancer related to his service as a first responder after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Greene previously suggested the attacks were a hoax.

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Greene apparently believes her supporters enjoy the notion of her attacking Hogg, Guttenberg said.

"The fact that she is such a mentally diminished person that she has this need to constantly go back to that — it doesn't just say a lot about her. It says a lot about her following but I would say even those who enable her," he said.

Among them are members of Congress who align themselves with her, he said, and have no capacity to engage on a "mentally fit level."

"This is just who they are and they need to be defeated," he said.

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