Gun control activist Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, was escorted out of the House chamber on Tuesday night for protesting President Donald Trump’s remarks about guns during his State of the Union address.
Guttenberg, who was invited to the event by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shouted in protest as Trump spoke about the Second Amendment — which the president said was “under siege all across our country.”
“So long as I am president, I will always protect your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Trump said.
Videos circulating on social media show security leading a man believed to be Guttenberg out of the room.
Pelosi’s office confirmed that Guttenberg was ejected from the event.
According to NBC News correspondent Kasie Hunt, “many Democrats on the floor turned toward the gallery” where Guttenberg was sitting and “applauded him as he was taken out of the chamber.”
Guttenberg’s daughter and 16 others were killed on Valentine’s Day in 2018 when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Since the massacre, Guttenberg has emerged as a vocal advocate for eradicating gun violence — and as a fierce critic of the president.
In an interview with CNN last year, Guttenberg accused Trump of lying repeatedly to gun violence victims.
“My daughter died in Parkland. I’ll live with that every second of every day. And he lied to me and all the other victims that day and he’s done it again since the other mass shootings, when he talks about doing the right thing for a brief second and then he says, ‘but I spoke to the NRA,’ and he walks away from it,” Guttenberg said.
David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, expressed his solidarity with Guttenberg in a tweet.
“#ImWithFred,” he wrote.
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